A Home at Last
by SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: I hate hospitals. Especially mental ones. You would too if you had been stuck in one for a year when you were only fifteen. I'm sixteen now, and still stuck in this hellhole. I find my thoughts wandering to getting out more than they used to, but not as much as they had when I first got here. I'm going crazy, well at least more crazy than I already am. Or more than they think I am.
1. Chapter 1

Fangs PoV

I hate hospitals. Especially mental ones. You would too if you had been stuck in one for a year when you were only fifteen. I'm sixteen now, and still stuck in this hellhole. I find my thoughts wandering to getting out more than they used to, but not as much as they had when I first got here. I'm going crazy, well at least more crazy than I already am. Or more than they think I am. Personally, I think this entire situation is crap. Ok, so I was depressed. Yes, I self-harmed. A lot. So what? It wasn't any of their business, and it's not their right to send me here. And it sure as hell isn't their job to try to make me 'better'.

The speaker in my small, bland room crackled before the nurses voice blasted through it, jarring my nerves. "Tony, we need you outside for a moment." She intoned, fake cheeriness injected into the notes. I gritted my teeth and muttered, "That's not my name." But I pulled my gaze away from the window anyway and walked over to the door. When I tried the handle, it was unlocked, which is rare nowadays. I opened it and stepped out into the hallway, and was instantly surrounded by the nurse and a couple of doctors.

"Hello Tony." The nurse said with the same too sweet tone. "We have some good news for you." I said nothing and just stood there, waiting. She obviously wanted me to respond, but after a few seconds she continued on. "We've decided you've made enough progress to attempt living with other children with similar… conditions." I wanted to scowl at her, but kept my face carefully blank. "You'll be living with five others, in a house a few miles from this facility." I raised my eyebrows. A house? With five other kids? "Someone will be by every week to survey the situation, and offer help if needed." I almost rolled my eyes at the word 'help', but didn't. "But other than that, you will be mostly on your own."

Now she stopped and gave me a stern look. "This is all based on an honor system. We're trusting you here. Do you understand?" I nodded once. "Good. Here are some of your belongings and a back pack to put them in. Now hurry, change and pack. You're leaving in half an hour." I took the bag and the back pack with me back into my room with me. I set them on the bare bed, then I stopped and stared at them. These were my old things, the ones my friends sent with me when I first came here. They hadn't understood how things really worked here.

I shook myself and started going through the bag. It held my band t-shirts, black jeans, my Converse, even my old black leather jacket. I smiled a little at it, then got dressed and pulled it on. I packed the remaining things into the back pack they had given me. I noticed a few things they had taken from me when I had arrived, like my pocket knife and things like that, were missing. Well, I guess if I'll be living in an actual house I could find a blade somewhere. I slung the pack over my shoulder and left the room, meeting the guard outside. "Come on, kid, the car is here." He said gruffly. I walked obligingly in front of him, through the lobby and outside.

The sun was bright, and it made me blink. "Down there." The guard said, pointing down the road to a car belonging to the hospital about 50 feet away. I nodded and walked over to it, hopping into the back and shutting the door behind me. I didn't speak to the driver, and he didn't speak to me. He just did his job and drove. It was a quick trip, maybe five minutes or so. We pulled up in front of a large house, three stories and painted a deep brown. I took a deep breath. Here we go.

The driver followed me out of the car, escorted me up the drive, knocked on the door. It was opened by a girl who looked my age, with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. She was 4 inches shorter than me. When she saw me, she smirked and crossed her arms, which were clad in elbow length fingerless black gloves. "Hey guys!" she called back into the house. "We've got fresh meat." She turned and walked back into the house, her mid back length air swishing. "Well, go on." The driver said impatiently. So I stepped inside the house and closed the door behind me.

Once inside, I was confronted with four other people. There was another boy my age, with super light strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin. He wore ripped jeans and a white t shirt, and was barefoot. His eyes were focused a few inches from my face, making his 'condition' obvious. Next to him was the girl from earlier. She wore an Evanescence t-shirt, dark jeans, and combat boots in addition to her gloves. Next to her was another boy about 14 years old, with light blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore a green shirt and regular jeans with Velcro sneakers. Next was a girl about 15 years old. She had mocha skin, tawny eyes, and caramel colored frizzy hair. She wore simple pink shirt, jeans, and pink Converse. Last was another girl, maybe twelve years old. She had golden curls, bright blue eyes, and flawless skin. She was wearing a designer gold Tee and jeans, with two inch heels. Plus makeup.

"Based on your appearance, I can guess what your problem is." The gloved girl said snidely. Now I let my scowl appear. I didn't have to put up with her snark. "Back off." I snarled. "Oh? Why should I?" she snapped, eyes suddenly flashing with anger. Her arms went to her sides and she took a threatening step forward. My scowl changed to a smirk. "Based on that reaction, I can guess what _your_ problem is." I said. She growled and took another step, her fists clenching…


	2. Chapter 2

until the pale guy caught her wrist. "Max." he hissed at her. "Did you take your meds yet today?" "No." she ground out through clenched teeth. "And why is that?" he asked.

"I don't like them." She snapped at him. "They make me feel dizzy." Alright, she might be acting like a jerk, but I felt her pain on that one. Mine did the same thing. "Go take them." He ordered. "No." she said. "Max-" "I said no!" she yelled, suddenly combusting, and yanked her wrist away from him. She stalked out the back door, slamming it behind her. The guy shook his head and turned back around. "Hi, I'm Iggy." He said, seeming to remember that I was there. "I'm Gazzy!" the other boy cried, waving madly and bouncing up and down. "I'm Nudge." The tawny girl said shyly, looking down at her feet. Before I could say anything to them, the blonde girl strutted in front of me.

"And _my_ name is Angel." She said proudly, standing in such a way to show off her expensive clothes. I simply nodded to her. Judging by the angry look on her face, it wasn't the reaction she had wanted. "And that lovely ray of sunshine that just threatened you is Max. And apparently she isn't the only one who hasn't taken her meds." Iggy said, shooting a sharp look at Gazzy. He blushed and looked down. Iggy turned his sightless eyes back to me. "I'm blind." He said, confirming my suspicions. "In case you were wondering. I'll let you figure the rest out on your own."

"Let me guess." I muttered wryly. "Max has anger issues." "Yep." Gazzy said. "And violence issues too. What about you?" Now they were all looking at me. I don't like being stared at. "I take meds. That's all you need to know." I said, looking at my feet. They didn't bug me about it. "Nudge, will you show… um… I actually didn't get your name." Iggy said, looking confused. "Fang." I said quietly. "Ok. Nudge, will you show Fang to his room?" Nudge nodded and said, "Follow me." In a shy voice, turning to head up the stairs.

I followed her. She walked up past the second floor, saying, "Max, Iggy, and I share the second floor. You get a room on the third with Gazzy and Angel." I nodded silently. We climbed up the last flight, and walked past two doors before reaching mine. The first was painted camouflage, and the second a light gold. "You can decorate it however you want." She said in her shy tone. "We have stuff In the garage. Iggy and I will help, maybe Max if you get her on a good day." I nodded yet again. "You don't talk much, do you?" she asked. I shook my head. She laughed a little. "Well, I'll let you get settled in." with that, she turned to march back downstairs.

I stepped into the room. It was unpainted and undecorated, but not harshly so like at the hospital. I set my back pack on the neatly made bed and walked over to the window. It looked out into the massive backyard, where I spotted Iggy arguing with Max. After a few minutes of that, I turned back around and started hanging my few clothes in the closet. I was just setting the back pack in the corner when I heard the back door shut, and Maxs voice rang out through the house. "I don't want to take the goddamn pills Iggy!" "I know Max." Iggy's voice was soothing. "But you know they'll send you back if you don't. This is your last chance, remember?"

There was silence. Then, "I don't want them. But I don't want to be sent back either. Not to that… place." I could practically hear the shiver that had to follow that sentence. "So which is worse. The pills, or being sent back?" Another pause before Max said, "Alright, fine. You win. I'll take them." "Thank you." Then there was silence. I waited few seconds before walking back downstairs. I passed the living room where Gazzy was playing Xbox and Angel was brushing her hair and looking into a small hand mirror. When I walked into the kitchen, Max was sitting on the counter with a Mountain Dew and two white pills.

She downed them in one go, took a swig of the soda, then set the can down on the granite counter top. She rested her head against the wall and muttered, "God I hate those." I surveyed the kitchen, noting where the knives and other sharp things were kept. "You should really stop eyeing those knives like that." I spun around and saw Max staring right at me. I gave her a questioning look. "You'll freak Nudge out." With that, she grabbed her soda, hopped off the counter, and left the room.

I frowned to myself, wondering what she meant, then shrugged and went back into the living room. I didn't want to get caught taking a knife. I'd be sent back for sure. Now that I think about it, that's the one thing what we probably all have in common. Hospitalization, and the fear of being sent back to our respective living hells. When I got to the living room, Iggy Nudge and Max had joined the other two. Nudge was reading something out loud to Iggy, and Max was watching Gazzy play. Unsure of what to do, I just went back upstairs to the room that was supposedly mine.

A couple of hours passed. I just paced around my room, biting my knuckles, until someone knocked on the door. "What?" I called. "Dinner time!" came Gazzy's cheerful voice. I really wasn't hungry, but I went downstairs anyway. Everyone was sitting in various positions in the living room with plates of food in their laps. "Hey, Mr. Dark and Mysterious decided to join us." Max said snarkily. I just rolled my eyes and went into the kitchen to get some food.

While I was in there, I studied the knives again, but forced myself to go back into the living room without touching one. But boy did I need it. I sat down in the corner of the couch and didn't look at anyone, just focused on eating the small amount I had given myself. "Thanks for making dinner, Iggy." Nudge said. I frowned. How did Iggy make dinner, if he's blind? "Thank you Nudge." Iggy said, making a silly little bow. "And yes, Fang, it is possible for a blind kid to cook." "Apparently." I muttered, still not looking up.

"Fang?" That was Angels sugary sweet voice. "What?" I murmured without moving. "You need a better fashion sense. What you're wearing is so…emo." I rolled my eyes, though the 'emo' comment did sting a little. People threw that word around too much, without knowing what it really meant. "Oddly enough, I think you just described my personality." I said, with a hint of Max-like snark. I heard silence as the rest of them tried to decipher what I had meant. I finished the last of my food, put the plate in the sink, and went back up to the room.

It's odd. Back at the hospital, the only thing I wanted was to leave my room. Now it was like my sanctuary, where I don't have to deal with their stares and barbed remarks. The remarks, I understand, as much as I hate them. I was a pretty freakish guy, and I probably deserved those comments. What I didn't understand was the stares. Why didn't they just ignore me, like everyone else always does? I don't get it.

And Max. She seems angry and distant, like she doesn't give a crap what happens to anyone else here. But what she had said earlier about freaking out Nudge, her reaction to the pills, and how much Iggy seemed to care about her didn't add up. I fell onto my bed back first and pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes. I couldn't think. In one day, I had left the hospital where I had lived for a year and was dumped into an unfamiliar house with unfamiliar people with unfamiliar problems. Long story short, I needed to cut. Badly.

My mind was a convoluted mess of thoughts, none of which I could follow long enough for them to form fully. I couldn't sort through them. The chaos was overwhelming, making me feel insane. I wouldn't be able to function unless I let it out. That one word bounced around in my head. Cut. It was the only solid thing in my mind, the only thing that wasn't too twisted up to understand. It was simple, physically at least. Blade, cut, then blood. But mentally? A whole new matter.

But right now it seemed like the best idea in the world. The only thing that could hold back a complete mental break. A technique they used on me in the hospital popped into my mind, the only one that actually seemed to work. Think of 5 words that describe how you feel right now.

_Confused. Insane. Lost. Chaotic. Overwhelmed._

And five for how I feel after I cut.

_Relieved. Guilty. Calm. Awful. Monstrous. _

I really did feel like a monster. Only a monster could cut on themself the way I did and enjoy it. Only a monster could still want to after a year of getting 'help'. Only a monster could feel the way I do.


	3. Chapter 3

Maxs PoV

I don't know quite what to make of Fang. His olive skin, black hair, and black clothing give him a dark and dangerous appearance. But his eyes. They were unnaturally dark, almost as black as his hair. Was I the only one that could see the vulnerability in them? The desperation? Then again, maybe I was the only one. Because I'm delusional. Just like my parents always said. The thought filled me with rage, and I swung a fist at the bright red punching bag that hung in my room. The song playing in the background matched my thoughts perfectly.

_But there's still rage inside._

The bag swung back a little, a few inches from the wall. All the different criticisms my parents had thrown at me over the years flooded my mind. The pills were starting to wear off, allowing the full range of my anger to bloom. With a yell of fury, I hit the bag hard with a kick, making it hit the wall. I continued to hit it with almost superhuman strength, yelling as loud as I could, letting all the anger id been (mostly trying) holding inside out through screams and physical exertion.

I tried. I really did try. But it's just so easy to get me angry, and then so hard to calm me down again. And those pills. The goddamned pills. I hated them. I should be confronting my anger, not smothering it with chemicals. The only reason I had to take them, the only reason I was here, hell, the only reason I was angry at all, was all because everyone thought I was a screw up. Even Iggy. You could see it on his face when he asked me to take my meds.

"Why. Am. I Such. A. Screw. Up?!" I shrieked, hitting the bag accurately, and hard, with each word. Then I collapsed onto my bed, out of breath, and looked around the room. The entire thing was decorated in a deep red. The color of anger. The doctors had wanted me to paint it a more calming color, but they had promised I could do whatever I wanted. So they had no power. I did. The most effective power stems from anger, from rage. From fear.

I didn't want that power, not really. And honestly? I didn't see myself as powerful, insane, or even unstable. I didn't see myself as angry, or afraid. I saw myself as an animal. I sure as hell acted like one. An animal controlled by instinct, by the will to live and to dominate. An animal swallowed by the darkness within itself. An Animal controlled by rage.

_So what if you can see the darkest side of me_

_ No one will ever change this animal I have become_

Fangs PoV

For hours after dinner I could hear Max on the floor below me, yelling and hitting what sounded like a punching bag, all with music pounding loudly. Once I heard her scream, "Why. Am. I. Such. A. Screw. Up?!" That sounded like something I asked myself a lot, but instead of expressing it as depression, she let it out through fury. Which is worse, I wonder? Anger, that destroys others, or self-hate, that destroys only you? Food for thought.

After a while, Max shut up. Judging by the silence in the house, I'm the only one awake. I threw the covers off of my body and swung my legs over the side of the bed. I got smoothly to my feet and headed for the door. I was silent in my bare feet and sweat pants. I was shirtless, letting the air cool my scarred skin. I padded silently down the hall, the stairs, and into the dark kitchen. The window let in a stream of moonlight, lighting the room in a silver mist. I slid one of the knives out of its holder and held the blade to my skin, relishing the feeling of the cool steel against the scars. A feeling I haven't had in months.

I prepared to slice, took a deep breath… and almost jumped out of my skin when I heard an emotionless voice from behind me say, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." I started violently and spun around, somehow managing to drop the knife. It clanged loudly to the floor as I located where the voice had come from. Standing in the shadow of the doorway stood Max, arms crossed, a smirk on her face. "What do you care?" I asked bitterly, crouching to pick up the knife.

Surprisingly, she got there first. In seconds, I was pressed against the fridge, with Max in front of me, pressing the blade into my bare chest. "What do I care?" she snarled. "First of all, they are gonna be here tomorrow, and they will check every inch of cuttable skin to look for marks." I knew she was talking about the hospital people. "And second of all, if Nudge sees cuts on you, she will flip out and we will probably not be able to calm her down again." I couldn't help myself, and I blurted out, "Why would Nudge get so upset?"

She gave me a look, then let the knife clang onto the counter and hopped on top of the one just behind her. "Nudge has PTSD." She said quietly, seeming to have calmed down a little. "Her dad came home drunk one day, started hitting her mom. Beat her for hours." I flinched, remembering my own dad. "She was unconscious by the time he pulled out his gun and shot her. Then he went into the kitchen, cut himself all over his limbs. Deep too. Then he collapsed on the floor and let himself bleed to death. Nudge was sitting on the stairs. She saw every second of it."

I shuddered. Memories were starting to flood into my mind, my life from ages 5 to 13, being beaten and abused by my father as revenge for my mom divorcing him. I needed the blade, and I needed it _now_. I reached for it, but Max was on her feet and had it in her hands before I could so much as touch it. "Look." She said tightly. "I'm sorry if I brought on bad memories, but you can't cut anymore." "Why not?" I hissed, panting as I fought back the memories, on the verge of covering my ears and curling into a ball. "Because if they find out, you'll be sent back, nimrod!" she snapped.

She slammed the knife back into its holder. "Just go back to sleep." She said a little more calmly. "And Iggy will always listen to you. And I will, if I'm not pissed." And with that, she slipped from the room.

I was so dazed, I went back to bed and actually got more than two hours of sleep.

(A/N Hellloooooo. This is being updated really fast cause i already have the first 4 or 5 chapters pre-written so... yeah. Hope you like this chapter. And MusicAnonymous, calm yourself grasshopper. :P

UNC-

Silence)


	4. Chapter 4

Fangs PoV

I woke at about 7 a.m the next day. Surprisingly, I could hear the others already up and about downstairs. I pulled a black t shirt on, then walked over to the closet and pulled out my back pack. I reached into the pocket, pulling out the little orange bottle of pills. I felt my other hand clench into a fist, but I gritted my teeth and downed two of them dry. It would be about a half hour before they kicked in. I grabbed my jacket and yanked it on before leaving the room, still in my sweats and barefooted. When I got downstairs and into the kitchen, I saw that everyone was gathered there, and Iggy was opening a small cupboard next to the fridge.

Inside were 4 small orange bottles. Of course, their meds. Iggy handed each person their small bottle, which impressed me considering he's blind. Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge took theirs and handed the bottles back without a problem. Max, however, just stood and stared at hers. "Max." Iggy prompted. Finally, Max sighed and took her pills. A smile grew on Iggys face as he put the bottle back, one of pride. I was starting to notice how Iggy acted, as though he was the leader, or the caretaker. Maybe that's what he is, since he's the only one here with a physical disability rather than a mental issue.

It took a while, but eventually they noticed me standing there, leaning against the counter silently. "Morning Fang!" Gazzy said cheerfully. I nodded to him. "Where are your meds?" Nudge asked. "Already took them." I muttered, looking at the floor. "Would you mind bringing them down here?" Iggy said. "We like to keep them all together so that we can make sure everyone takes them." "Actually," I said lowly. "I _do_ mind." Then I turned and walked out of the room and out the back door. I headed over to a tree at the edge of the yard. It was super tall, maybe 30 feet, and crazily easy to climb.

I scaled up it, maybe twenty feet, before stopping and settling down on a thick branch. I leaned my head back against the trunk and closed my eyes, letting myself get lost in thought, which Is dangerous for me.

Maxs PoV

Well, _someone's_ a bit antisocial. Of course, I can't blame him. I was the same way when I came here, though there was a bit more screaming and fist fights and less attempting to cut myself in the middle of the night. But I digress.

After Fang stormed out of the house, Angel huffed and muttered, "What's _his_ problem?" I felt my jaw clench, and had to bite my tongue. "He's new." Nudge reasoned quietly. "He just needs time to adjust. We all did." "You're right, Nudge." Iggy said. "He'll get used to us after a while. Just give him some time." I sighed and shook my head. For some reason, I think Fang will need more than just time to get better.

All of our heads snapped up when the bell rang. "They're here." Nudge whispered. I felt cold dread settle in my gut, and Iggy gulped nervously. "I'll get the door." He said bravely. "Max, will you go find Fang?" "Sure Igs." I murmured, and turned to walk out the back door. I knew exactly where Fang would be. He would be up in that tree. I strode lightly across the yard to the base of the trunk and peered up into the branches. Sure enough, there was Fang, leaning against the tree twenty feet up with his eyes closed. "Hey, Fang! It's time to come down!" I called. He shrugged without even opening his eyes. "Fang, get down now." I said louder, feeling my temper start to rise.

I couldn't get angry, not when those stupid doctors are inside! "No." "The doctors are here!" That got his attention, and he looked down at me. I was surprised to see legitimate fear shining in his eyes. "Now we both need to get inside." I told him. He bit his lip, but started climbing down anyway.

Fangs PoV

Now, normally I would have stayed up in the tree, to hell with them. But this wasn't just about me. This was about five other kids that would do anything to stay out of the hospital. I couldn't be the reason for them to go back to hell. So I climbed down to Max, who looked apprehensive and just a tad angry. When I got closer, I saw a bit of fear shining in her eyes. As I brushed by her, I whispered, "You'll be ok." I have no idea why I did it, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Finally, I stepped inside. I was instantly aware of 2 things. 1: the tension obvious in the air. 2. The six people standing in the living room in white coats. I stopped and leaned heavily against the wall. I had barely been out of the place for twenty four hours and there were already doctors staring at me. I hated it.

"Hello kids." One doctor said 'kindly'. "How have you all been doing?" "Fine." Iggy answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Good. Have you all been taking your pills?" "Yes." Iggy answered, but his blind eyes did flicker a bit in Maxs direction. I saw her cross her arms and look down at the floor, her foot tapping anxiously. One of the female doctors spoke up. "We understand you recently got a new.. er… arrival?" she said. All eyes in the room turned to me, making me want to fidget. But I kept still, only moving my eyes to look at the doctor. "Are you the new one?" she asked, 'gently'. I nodded once, tensely. She gave a 'soft' smile. "Would you come upstairs, please? I would like to speak to you privately." No, no I don't want to.

But I didn't have a choice. So I nodded again and followed her upstairs, glancing once over my shoulder to see Max giving me a look that said a million different things.

"So." She said once we were settled up in my room. "How have you been feeling lately?" "Fine." I muttered. She frowned, but continued none the less. "No thoughts of self-harm or suicide?" she questioned. I shook my head no. A lie, but what did I care if she didn't? "Tony." She said 'gently', making me clench my jaw. "We can't help you if you won't let us." "I don't want your help." I mumbled angrily. She sat back, looked a bit ticked off, but she regained her composure and said, "All right. I'm going to be nice here. I won't send you back… if you take your pills every day with no self-harm. One misstep and you're out. Understand?" Long gone was the fake kindness. This was business.

I nodded once. "Good. Now let me see your wrists and your legs." I took off my jacket and rolled up my sweats so she could see that there weren't any new marks. Just old scars. Only thanks to Max. After a thorough inspection, the woman smirked smugly and said, "Good. Keep it this way and we won't have any problems." Without waiting for any answer I might have had, she walked out. Not like I was going to answer her anyway.

(A/N ANother chapter! Yaaaaaaaaaaay.

UNC-

Silence)


	5. Chapter 5

Maxs PoV

We all separated into different rooms. I was in the living room with my doctor. I hated him. The way he looked at me was just icky. "Have you taken your pills every day, on time?" he asked, his beady eyes fastened on me. "Yes." I said, the lie burning in my throat. I could practically hear my parents voices in my head: Liar. Liar. Liar. "And have you been less angry?" "Less angry than I used to be, if that's what you're asking." I muttered, quickly looking away from him. I felt his gaze intensify, and my skin started crawling. I inched away slightly. "You don't have to be afraid of me Max." he said, reaching out to put a hand on my shoulder. I jerked away and stood up suddenly. He looked up at me in surprise as I wrapped my arms around myself. "I think we're done." I said, then quickly walked outside.

I felt my fists start to clench, but I caught myself and forced a few deep breaths. My eyes closed as I fought to not start punching a tree. "Hey." I jumped, and my eyes flared open only to see Fang standing a few feet away from me. I nodded to him, not trusting myself to not be the bitch I usually am. Now my classmates voices chant: Bitch. Bitch. Bitch. Fang stayed silent, somehow sensing that I didn't want to talk. Or maybe he stayed silent because he's Fang and he _doesn't freaking talk_. Gah I'm an idiot. Without looking at him, I quickly strode across the yard to the big tree Fang had hid in earlier. I liked to hide there too. Except I climbed higher than Fang did, as high as I could possibly go without snapping a branch. Good thing I'm skinny.

I closed my eyes and let my mind wander away from the doctors. I found it wandering to Fang. The way he looked at me last night was… odd. It was a mixture of resentment and thankfulness. And just a bit of curiosity, as though he was wondering why I bothered helping him. And he was just covered in scars, some intentional, some not. I can tell the difference. The ones he did to himself were in neat lines, a pattern of small straight scars. The others were large and jagged and random. I couldn't help but wonder who did those. And what he had said earlier, before we met with the doctors? "You'll be ok." Where did _that _come from? I mean, I barely know the kid for God's sake!

I was snapped out of my trance by Nudge bursting out of the back door. Within moments I was on the ground, just in time for her to crash into me and burst into tears. I wrapped my arms around her, hushing her and asking soothingly, "What's wrong?" "The-the doctor." She choked out. "What did he do?" I knew that these doctors can be cold hearted jack asses, and that really messes with Nudge. She's so sweet and kind, and sometimes things people do hit her really hard. She pulled away from me enough to wipe her cheeks before answering. "He wanted me to tell him what happened with my parents." Her lip started trembling again but she got back under control. "He wanted to hear every little detail. I just couldn't do it, Max! And when I couldn't answer him he got mad and he slapped me!"

I tensed. "Let me see." I said stiffly. She brushed her curly hair over one shoulder and turned her cheek toward me. There was a bright red mark in the shape of a hand imprinted on her mocha skin. One of my fists clenched and my jaw set. I was gonna tear his throat out. "It'll be ok Nudge." I said tightly. "They aren't gonna send me back, are they?" she asked tearfully. "No! Over my dead body!" I snapped vehemently. I shut my eyes and took a breath before speaking again. I was letting anger get the best of me. "Go find Iggy." I told her. She obeyed quickly, recognizing the danger signs. As soon as the door shut behind her back, I slammed my fist into the tree trunk, making Fang jump. I looked down at my knuckles, which were now bleeding, and swore. However, I still couldn't resist punching it again with my other fist. Now both of my fists were bleeding.

But I didn't care.

How dare they do that? How could he stand to hit _Nudge_; sweet, caring Nudge. I don't know how they can live with themselves, telling us they're here to help but really they're just here to abuse us. And they _wonder_ why we hate them so much.

Scum.

No, that would be an insult to scum everywhere. My mental rant was abruptly interrupted by my head spinning, making me quickly lean against the tree. The pills might not help with the anger, but they certainly worked at making me dizzy. I took several deep breaths, but the dizziness didn't fade. "You ok?" That voice could only belong to Fang. Why he gave a crap, I can't tell you. "Fine." I ground out through clenched teeth, then forced myself to straighten up. The world spun for a moment, but eventually righted itself. "Dizzy?" he asked, looking away. "A bit." I answered briskly. "But its past."

He just nodded silently.

Fangs PoV

I have to say, I had never seen Max act as tenderly or protectively to anyone as she was to Nudge. And she warned Nudge to leave when she was about to explode, so she wouldn't have to see the bleeding knuckles or the dizzy spell. I myself was pretty furious about what the doctor did to Nudge. Aren't they supposed to help us? I mean, I didn't expect them to, but nor did I expect them to actually hurt us either.

Wait, since when did I start caring about them this much?

(A/N Poor confused Fang. Anyway, Im gonna try to get another chapter out for Lost in the Dark within the next few days. And heres some song lyrics, the first person to tell me the song name and the artist gets the next chapter dedicated to them.

_Through sadness you have taught us_

_to be one with the crowd_

_Unveil the sacred order_

_hymns of falling down_

_you told the greatest stories_

_of love and bleeding crowns_

_but to the sick and hungry_

_you cannot be found_

UNC-

Silence)


	6. Chapter 6

Fangs PoV

The doctors eventually cleared out. All I really wanted to do after all that was hide in my room some more. Unfortunately, the others kept me downstairs to 'talk'. Good God.

Once we had all sat down, Max pointedly on the opposite side of the room from me, Nudge spoke up softly. "You first Iggy." She said shyly. "He did what he normally does and just watched me maneuver around the house to see if I got confused or anything." "You never get confused." Gazzy piped up. Iggy grinned. "Exactly. What about you, Gaz?" "He asked about my medicine and if ive been taking it and timed how long I could be quiet and how long I could sit still and then how long I could be quiet and sit still and it was really hard and I didn't last too long and-" "Ok!" Angel shouted over Gazzys babbling. "My turn." Gazzy slumped in his seat, and Angel flipped her hair triumphantly. Then her face turned to annoyance.

"She kept lecturing me about using less make up and wearing less elaborate clothing and to spend less time getting ready. I mean, who would actually do that? Everyone knows image is everything!" Here she paused, then said with a sneer, "Well, except Max of course." Dead silence fell, each of us waiting tensely to see how Max would react. She closed her eyes, clenched her fists… then opened them and said calmly, while looking straight at Angel, "You know what they say about vanity, Angel?" Angel shook her head warily. "It makes you all puffed up, when really you're hollow inside." Angel narrowed her eyes, but before she could retort Iggy exclaimed, "Ok, moving on! What about you, Max? Did he try to touch you again?"

I looked up sharply, my eyes clashing with Maxs. Her breath caught the tiniest bit, but she answered none the less. "Just my shoulder. But he's still creepy as hell." Her voice was completely flat. My eyes narrowed slightly as Iggy said, "Good." Nudge told of her experience to Gazzy and Angel. Gazzy seemed genuinely sympathetic, but Angel just yawned. Then all eyes turned to me, _again_. The staring… I hate the freaking staring. "Fang?" Iggy prompted when I didn't say anything. "Nothing happened." I muttered, looking down. "Now quit staring at me." After a second, I peeked up at them. They were still oogling. "I said _quit_." I snarled. They didn't, though Gazzy's eyes were shifting a little.

My hand started tugging on my sleeve, and I squeezed my eyes shut, willing them to just stop. "Guys, come on, knock it off." Everyone was surprised to hear Max say that. The moment everyone turned to look at Max, I leapt up from my seat and sprinted up the stairs to my room. I closed the door, then flopped face down on the mattress. I could still feel their gazes on me, crawling over my skin like insects that I couldn't brush off. I couldn't breathe. I sat bolt upright and yanked off my jacket, my shirt following. I lay on my stomach, my arms stretched out in front of me, wrist up. I ran my eyes up and down my arms, over each and every little white line that landed me here.

Then I looked at the larger, more haphazard ones, the ones that caused the smaller scars. I shuddered as I remembered how I got each one. I ran my thumb over a particularly thick (self-induced) scar halfway up my forearm. That one had landed me in the hospital. It almost killed me. I wish it would have. My skin itched, begging for a blade. But there wasn't one in this room, and I couldn't go downstairs and get one. I rolled onto my back and shut my eyes tightly, trying to block out the urge. To distract myself, I ran two fingers over a long scar that stretched from my right shoulder diagonally across my chest, all the way to my left hip. I shuddered again. I got that the last night I ever saw my asshole of a dad, a few months after my thirteenth birthday. He tried to kill me, then left me to die. I haven't seen him since.

And if I did I would kill him.

Maxs PoV

"He is such a _weirdo_!" Angel exclaimed. "Why did you do that Max?" "It was bugging him." I said quietly, willing myself not to lose my temper. "And he isn't a weirdo, at least not any more than the rest of us." "Did you see how he ran away?" Angel continued. "He's a coward." I lost it there. I shot to my feet, my fists clenching. "Angel, just because you enjoy being stared at by every creature with vision doesn't mean everyone will!" Iggy reached for my arm. That upset look was on all of their faces. The looks ranged from 'Max can't keep her temper, I'm so disappointed' to 'OMG Max is such a bitch cant she stop screwing up for once'. I was getting more and more angry as they kept looking at me like that, and finally I snapped and ran up the stairs after Fang.

I dashed into my room and slammed the door. The bang hadn't even stopped echoing through the house before I had flung myself at the punching bag. I held my screams in, knowing it would just upset the others more, and threw my punches silently. One phrase bounced around in my head, until I just couldn't stand it anymore. So I pushed my bed back from the wall, revealing a collage of words and phrases scrawled angrily across the red paint in black Sharpie. No one in the world knows about this. It was my secret.

I pulled the Sharpie out from one of the pillow cases and, in the space between _bitch_ and _crazy_, wrote _What is wrong with me? _I could hear a million different voices repeating words, echoes of the past.

_Max, why can't you be nicer? _

_Why are you so angry Max? _

_Can't you be normal for once? _

_Psycho. _

_Liar. _

_Bitch. _

_Go to hell. _

_What's wrong with you, Max? _

(A/N Theres another chapter for you guys.

UNC-

Silence)


	7. Chapter 7

Third Person PoV

Being a kind and caring person, Nudge decided she would try to talk to Fang, even though she didn't know him at all. She tripped quietly up the stairs and knocked almost silently on the door. Thinking she heard a response, she poked her head into the room. Then she froze.

Fang was asleep. His jacket and his shirt were lying haphazard on the floor. Scars crisscrossed his skin, there was barely any that didn't have one. Nudge felt herself start to hyperventilate, her fingers started digging into her palm. Fang shifted slightly to face her more fully, and Nudge gasped. There was a long scar stretching all the way across his chest. She lost it then. Memories flooding through her mind, flashing across her eyes. She closed the door and braced her back against it, slowly sliding to the floor and tucking her knees up.

The memories didn't stop coming, so she buried her face in her knees and clamped her hands over her ears. _Stop, stop, stop!_ She urged in her mind, feeling herself starting to unravel. Tears squeezed out of her eyes and streaked down her cheeks. She snapped when the echo of her mother's scream ripped across her consciousness. "Iggy!" she shrieked, scrambling to her feet and rushing down the stairs, sobbing as she went.

Fangs PoV

I jumped awake to a shrill scream right outside my door. "Iggy!" it sounded like Nudge. I quickly pulled my shirt and jacket back on, suddenly anxious about someone seeing my scars, then left my room. When I had reached the second floor, I ran into Max, who had a terrified look on her face. I stopped halfway down the last flight, peering over the railing into the living room. Nudge was clinging desperately to Iggy's neck, sobbing hysterically. "Nudge what happened?" Max asked, coming up behind Nudge and starting to stroke her hair. "He- he's just got _so many_ scars!" she blubbered.

Max's head whipped around to stare at me as my eyes widened. My mind whirred as I tried to figure out how she could have seen them. Wait- crap! I fell asleep with my jacket off and the door unlocked. _Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!_ "Who?" Iggy asked, but Nudge couldn't answer, she was crying so hard. Watching her completely freaking out because of me made a heavy weight settle in my stomach. _This is all because of you_. I thought to myself. "It'll be ok Nudge." Max said soothingly, rubbing her back, but she kept looking at me.

"I'll handle her Max." Iggy said. Max gave him a short answer and started back up the stairs towards me. I turned to run, but before I could even make it a step I felt Maxs hand on my arm. She spun me around and looked me straight in the eye. "We need to talk." She said lowly, and I had a split second to wonder if she was angry before she was dragging me upstairs.

Third Person PoV

Angel also heard Nudges shriek, but she just rolled her eyes and reapplied herself to fixing her makeup. It had smeared after she had started crying in her room after her and Maxs fight. She really had to remember to get some water proof mascara. As she stared at herself in the mirror, she mentally compared herself to some other twelve year old girls she had known. She was much prettier than them. It was obvious. But… was she really empty inside?

She stared deeper into her own light blue eyes. She didn't think she was empty. She just had a hard time understanding other people. She didn't know how to act around others, she didn't know what would make them mad and what would make them sad. She couldn't understand why certain things made them sad or angry, or how certain things made them happy. And she couldn't see why they didn't fawn over her the way she fawned over herself. She was pretty. She had the perfect hair and makeup and the perfect clothes. Didn't they notice? Didn't they see that she was good enough? Apparently they didn't, because they labeled her as narcissistic and sent her away.

Angel felt more tears well up, but she fought them back before they could ruin her makeup again. She forced herself to flip her hair arrogantly the way she always did. So what if they sent her away? They obviously weren't good enough for her if they didn't want her around. They must know that…. Right? Why else would they send her to that horrible place? She wasn't that bad… was she?

Fangs PoV

Max sat me down on my bed, closed the door, then stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. "There aren't going to be any more secrets here." She said. "I'll tell you all about me and the rest of us, but you have to tell me about your own life." "Will you tell the others what I tell you?" I asked, letting my hair fall down to cover my eyes. Max hesitated a moment, then answered, "Only what I have to." "You first." I muttered, twisting my hands into my jacket sleeves. The only scars that were visible when I wore it were a few across my knuckles and the very tip of one that peeked out of my collar. "Alright. Let's start with Iggy.

"He's sixteen, and he wasn't born blind. That happened when he was fourteen, when he got in a fight at school and the kid had a knife." I shuddered. "His parents sent him to a rehabilitation place, where he stayed for a year. He was the first to come here, about a year ago. Nudge is 15, she arrived about 9 months ago, after all that stuff with her parents went down. The state was concerned about her mental condition, and she was in a mental hospital for 10 months before coming here. Gazzy is 14. He has ADHD. He was only in a hospital for a month before coming here 5 months ago. His behavior was so crazy and out of control that his parents just couldn't keep up with him and thought it would be easier to pass him on to someone else."

Poor kid. He's gotta have some pent up anger over that somewhere. "Angel is 12, and she's narcissistic. Her parents noticed it when she was around ten, and sent her away when she was eleven. She spent 6 months in a hospital and she arrived here four months ago." That made sense. "So you've talked about everyone." I said slowly, then looked up to meet her eyes. "But what about you?"

(A/N Ta-da. There you go, everyones backstory except for Maxs, which should be next chapter. That should be fun.

UNC-

Silence.)


	8. Chapter 8

Fangs PoV

She bit her lip, then sat down next to me on the bed. "My parents are really wealthy and influential." She started, her voice much quieter than it was before. "When they had me, they wanted the perfect son. That was their first problem with me, that I wasn't a guy. And they hated how tomboyish I was, how I hated all the girly stuff they wanted me to like. My anger problems started when I was eight, after my parents tried to get me to go to some stupid birthday party of a girl who hated me." She shrugged a bit sadly. "It was a disaster. Afterwards, they just lectured me and lectured me for hours until I couldn't take it anymore. I snapped and threw a vase at the wall. After that night, I started taking a tally of all the times my parents said something to me that wasn't criticism. From that time until I was thirteen, the total was twice."

I shook my head. "When I was ten, the bullying started. But I didn't get sad the way other kids did when they were bullied. Whenever someone made fun of me, I'd lash out at them, either with words or with my fists. Got into a lot of trouble, which only got me more criticism from my parents, which only made me angrier." "Why are you putting so much more detail into this one?" I interrupted. "Hey, if I only have to tell the others what they need to know about you, I'm only going to tell you what you need to know about them." She said, nudging my shoulder and giving a slight smile. "Anyway, it just got worse until finally I was sent to juvy when I was thirteen. This one guy kept harassing me, following me around all day and throwing taunts every which way until I started a fight with him. I broke his arm. That was the last straw that got me sent there.

"I was only supposed to be there a few months, but I kept getting into fights and breaking the rules like disrespecting staff and what not. So I ended up staying there for 8 months. I was finally sent home, but as soon as I walked in the door I got into a huge knock down drag out with my parents. By then I was fourteen, and after that fight I ran away. I managed to stay alive on the streets for three weeks before the cops caught me and dragged me back to my house. My family didn't want anything to do with me though, and they sent me to that damn hospital." She stopped and shuddered. "I was the second one to come here, when I was fifteen. And that's where the story ends, I guess."

"How old are you now?" I asked. "Sixteen. You?" "Same." She smiled again, but it disappeared quickly. "Now it's your turn." She said softly. "Are you sure you wanna know?"

Maxs PoV

I felt a bit odd, spilling my entire history like that, but I expected the same of Fang, so it was only fair. I nodded in response to his question. "My house burned down when I was three. We lost everything, and the financial strain was really hard on my mom. She divorced my dad when I was five, and he somehow wound up with custody. He started drinking." I winced a little in sympathy. "And with the drink came the abuse." I blinked. I had expected as much, but somehow hearing him say it was still a shock. In fact, hearing him speak at all is still a shock. "How long?" I heard myself ask. "From when I was five until I was thirteen. He put me in the hospital twice."

I winced again. "A couple of months after my thirteenth birthday, he got more wasted than I'd ever seen him and tried to kill me. He left me in the house to die and left. I never saw him again. Somehow I managed to survive not only that but also another two years alone in that house without power or running water." "So it was neglect and abuse?" I blurted out, then clapped my hand over my mouth. There I go, screwing up again. But Fang didn't get angry, he just nodded. "No one ever found out about it, until I was fifteen. Two of my friends found me in my house, passed out from blood loss. When they got me to the hospital, they saw all the scars, and sent me to that hospital. I was there for a year."

He abruptly stopped talking, probably feeling even more uncomfortable than I did. "When did this start?" I asked in a quiet voice, lightly touching his sleeve. His jaw clenched, and the question obviously bugged him, but he answered anyway. "I was twelve." Was all he said. I sighed to myself. He had it so much worse than any of us here. "What are you going to tell everyone else?" he asked. "Just that you were abused and neglected and have a problem with depression." I responded. "Vague enough?" He nodded, almost gratefully.

I smiled at him and got up to leave. "Max?" I turned back around and looked curiously at Fang. "I'm really sorry about Nudge-" "It's not your fault." I cut in. "Ok." He muttered, looking at the floor. I managed one more smile before leaving the room.

Fangs PoV

That was torturous. I hated remembering, and now after telling someone about it I couldn't stop remembering. It made me feel insane. I fell face first into the pillows and pulled one over my head. Maybe if I stayed in here long enough I would die. I knew that if I didn't I would inevitably cut again, and If I did I would be sent back. But they can't send me back if I'm dead.

It's just that simple.

(A/N Theres Max and Fangs backstories. Like? Review plese.

UNC-

Silence)


	9. Chapter 9

Fangs PoV

For hours, I stayed holed up in my room while Max and Iggy calmed Nudge down. I just hung out on my bed or paced around the room until around midnight when I finally fell asleep.

I had nightmares. Lots of them. Most had only one similarity… I died at the end of every single one.

Maxs PoV

It took a long, long time to get Nudge calm again. Even then, she was shaky and would burst into hysterics at any time. Iggy was going to stay with her, and he told me to get some sleep. Unfortunately, I didn't. Instead I sat on my bed and listened to music, thinking about what Fang had told me. The last time he ended up in the hospital, when he had cut too deep. Was he trying to end it, or was it an accident? Did he mean to, or did he just… cut too deep and let it bleed? Besides that, it must have freaked his friends out either way, seeing him bleeding on the floor.

I could barely imagine that kind of pain. Anger, I understand. But I can't imagine the kind of pain it would take to make someone take a blade to their own skin. And to be honest, I don't want to imagine it. I never want to feel pain like that, I'll take anger any day. Sadly, no one has the choice. I sighed and drew my knees up to my chest. Here's a thought: Maybe I did feel that pain, but I covered it with anger. I put my head down on my knees. Curse Fang, he's messing with my head. Even if I did feel it, was it better for me to disguise it as anger? Maybe it was better for me, but for everyone else?

To the others, I'm unpredictable and scary. And quite a bit of a bitch, actually. Would it be better for them if I stopped blowing up at them, and started letting it out… differently? I shook my head hard and tried to put the idea out of my mind. I won't do that to myself, not if I can help it. But still, the question remains. If I had done what Fang does instead of getting angry, maybe things would have turned out differently. Whether things would be better or worse, I don't know. Probably worse. I'd probably be even more mentally screwed up than I am now. But maybe I wouldn't have hurt as many people.

I sighed again and fell back onto my bed. No point thinking about it now. The best thing I could do now is take my pills and try to keep my cool, as hard as it was. I closed my eyes, and finally managed to fall asleep with my music still playing.

_I played down every feeling I felt _

_And I bottled them up _

_Till the well ran over._

Fangs PoV

Around 6 a.m., the nightmares finally stopped. Unfortunately, that also meant I couldn't fall back asleep. After tossing and turning for about an hour, I finally surrendered and went downstairs. I still had my jacket on, and I doubt I would take it off very often now. If only to spare Nudge from remembering. I stepped into the kitchen, but turned right back around again. The knives were way too tempting. I hadn't eaten at all the day before, but the very thought of food made me feel sick.

Instead I went and sat on the couch, flipping on the TV and putting the volume on low. I didn't even pay attention to the screen, it was just background noise to shut out the memories. "Hey." I jolted a little and turned to look back at the stairwell. Max. Of course it was Max. I nodded to her, and she smiled slightly as she went past me into the kitchen. She came back and sat down on the opposite couch, holding a glass of orange juice and a bagel. "You want anything to eat?" she asked. I shook my head, and she shrugged and started eating.

We sat in silence. Max was apparently paying attention to the television, because occasionally I would hear her chuckle at something. I was just lost in my own little world, which isn't exactly the prettiest place ever. But at least it was better than here. I couldn't look Max in the eye, not after everything I told her. I never spilled my full history to anyone, not my friends, not the doctors, no one. Usually I left out the part where my house burned down. I'm not sure why, but maybe it was because I didn't want to forgive my mom for leaving. Maybe I didn't want to give her a valid reason.

Oh well. I don't know why I still waste my time hating her when she doesn't give a shit about me. I guess I can't help it. I sighed to myself and ran my hand through my hair. I caught sight of my sleeve sliding down, and quickly pulled it back up. I was starting to hate my line of thought, so I pulled myself out of my reverie and looked at the TV.

For the next few hours, me and Max just watched TV without saying anything. Then the others started waking up and coming downstairs. First it was Iggy, then Gazzy, Angel with her mirror and comb, and finally Nudge. When Nudge saw me, she quickly looked away and ran over to stand by Iggy. I looked down at my feet, feeling incredibly guilty. I hate causing people pain. But I guess it's too late now. This is what I get for being a careless idiot.

I guess I deserve it.

(A/N There ya go, another chapter. Its a little dark and depressing, but what are ya gonna do?

UNC-

Silence)


	10. Chapter 10

Fangs PoV

The day passed by slowly, until I was once again lying awake in bed at like 3 a.m. I hadn't eaten or said a single word, and I rarely looked at anyone. This led me to be shaky and feeling like I'm about to come apart at the seams, and no sleep from fear of nightmares. Enough of this game. I was completely done. If they want to send me back, so be it.

I got up and padded silently out of my room, leaving the door open. I was in a tee, but I left my jacket upstairs. What was the point of wearing it in the dead of night when everyone was asleep? I made my way into the kitchen, much the way I had the first night here. I made it to the knife block and was reaching my hand out… when someone caught my wrist.

"I thought you might try tonight." Max said with no sign of her usual snark. "Goddamnit, Max." I muttered, yanking my wrist away. She had scared me nearly to death. How in the hell did she hide in the shadows like that without me seeing her? "Go back upstairs." I muttered angrily at her. I didn't want to talk to her. "If you really think I'm going to do that, then you must be a bigger idiot than I thought you were." I rolled my eyes at her. "Stop pretending to care." I snarled, reaching for the knives again. She smacked my hand away. "What makes you think I'm pretending?" she asked, seeming more confused than I've seen her so far.

"Because some people do." "Some people." "Yeah. The others don't even bother doing that much. Now go back upstairs." "No!" Her eyes were flashing, and she was standing firmly between me and the knives. "I will not go back upstairs and pretend that you aren't dying inside!" I blinked and stared at her. I certainly hadn't been expecting _that_. "You know what I think? I think we feel similar things, and-" "You don't know jack about how I feel." I snapped. It was like we had switched personalities or something. "I said _similar,_ smart one! You're right, I don't know exactly how you feel and I won't pretend to. But I'm the best you're gonna get!"

I took a step back and just looked at her. My eyes narrowed as I searched her face. "If you really want to help me, you'll let me take a knife." "No, if I want to help you, I'll keep you as far away from them as possible." She countered, her voice oozing sincerity. "And that's what I plan to do." "Max." I said, giving her an almost pleading look. I'm not too good with visual emoting. "Come on, I want to show you something." I frowned and gave her a funny look, but I followed her back upstairs anyway, glancing back at the knives only once.

She led me up to the third room on the second floor and pushed the door open. It was painted all in deep red, with a black bedspread. Must be her room. She closed the door behind me. "Listen, no one else knows about this, so don't tell anyone, ok?" she asked nervously. "Who could I tell?" I muttered in a dark tone, glowering at the floor. She just rolled her eyes and walked over to her bed. Quickly, she braced herself against it and pushed the bed about two feet to the left, revealing a large collage of black sharpie letters on the wall. Transfixed, I slowly moved forward and knelt down to read the words.

_Bitch_

_Liar_

_Psycho_

_Whats wrong with me?_

_Emo_

_Freak_

_Ugly_

_Anorexic_

_Horrible_

_Die_

_A disgrace_

_Failure_

_Hopeless_

_Screw up_

_They all hate you_

_Delinquent_

I couldn't read any more. I turned to look at Max, shocked. "Max?" "See? We aren't so different." I was completely shocked. Who knew Max felt like this? "You said no one knows about this?" I asked. She nodded. "So no one knows how you really feel." I mused quietly. "No. I'm pretty sure everyone thinks I'm a bitch, actually." I looked sharply at her. "And that bugs you." "Well, wouldn't it bug you?" "Touché."

She smiled. "Now, will you promise me you won't cut?" "I've promised a lot of people that. And not once have I kept it." I said honestly. She sat back on her heels and looked at me. "Alright, don't promise. But at least promise to _try_." I bit my lip as I pondered. "Fine. I promise to try." "Thanks." She said with a smile. "Now you should probably go back to bed." I nodded and headed back to my room without another word. As I lay in bed once more, I thought over what just happened. Max had stopped me from cutting, not once but twice. And she made me promise to try, as if she actually cared. Was that even a possibility? Could she actually care?

For some reason, I really, really wanted to believe she did.

Maxs PoV

There was only one thing I could think about, and that was how dang cute Fang looked when he bit his lip like that.

Wait- no. No normal teenage girl thoughts. I lost that right when I went to juvy. No, I lost it when I started getting angry. No more normality. I buried my face in my pillows. What was I thinking, showing Fang that wall? Such a brain dead move. But despite how weird it was, Fang didn't freak out, like any of the others would have. I was grateful for that. And I cared about him, for some odd reason, which seemed to surprise him.

I don't know why I did. Usually I tend to avoid people, for obvious reasons, and even my relationships with the others in this house were distant and strained. But for some reason I cared for Fang, and I have no clue why. With a groan, I rolled onto my back and shut all of those thoughts out of my head.

Time to sleep.

(A/N Ta-da, chapter! Review!

UNC-

Silence)


	11. Chapter 11

Fangs PoV

I didn't sleep again, but not because of nightmares. I couldn't get Max out of my head. I couldn't stop thinking about her. Whats wrong with me? I can't get the image of her out of my mind. I looked at the clock. 6:30. I groaned and pulled a pillow over my head. I wonder how many nights you have to go without sleep before you go insane. Or die. Either one. I think you die if you go ten nights without sleep. Based on the past few nights, that's a very real possibility. I wonder if I should be concerned? Nah. Not yet. I'll start worrying at the ninth night.

At 7 AM, I heard music start coming from Maxs room. She's always listening to music. Rock music. The music that I like. Usually she keeps it quiet enough that I can't hear the words, just the beat and a little guitar. But this morning she has it cranked up so loud I can hear that it's one of my favorite songs. Pain by Three Days Grace. I wonder why it's so loud this morning?

Maxs PoV

As soon as I woke up, my mind was flooded with thoughts of Fang. I buried my face into my pillows. Why was my brain choosing to torture me_ now_? I had never had this problem before with anyone! Why this random person? I flipped on my music, cranking it up louder than normal, in an attempt to make the thoughts go away. It didn't work too well. I was about to bang my head against the freaking wall. Would getting a concussion somehow alter my anatomy so that I don't have these thoughts? In a perfect world, I suppose.

"Max! Turn your music down!" Iggy yelled from the room next to mine, sounding irritated. I lowered the volume until it was at its usual. "Happy?" I shouted back. "Very!" I rolled my eyes at his answer before flopping back down on my bed. A little while later, Iggy knocked on my door. "I'm making breakfast Max." he called. "Ok, I'll be down in a minute." I said back. Then I did something I almost never did: I brushed my hair. I know, crazy huh? I usually kept it clean, but didn't bother brushing it. But this morning I did. Then I went upstairs to get Fang.

What? He hadn't eaten in two days and he wouldn't if someone didn't prompt him. I knocked lightly on the door, but got no response. "Fang? It's Max." Now he opened it, and I couldn't help muttering, "Woah." And not in a good way. He was really pale and had deep shadows under his eyes. He was practically shaking. "Come on." I said. "Iggy's making breakfast." He started to shake his head, but I grabbed his jacket clad wrist. "You need to eat, and you are going to." I hissed at him before dragging him down the stairs. "You haven't been sleeping either, have you?" I whispered to him on the way downstairs. He just shook his head. I sighed mentally.

See, we all try to eat breakfast and dinner together at least every few days so we don't turn into a bunch of lonely crazy kids. And since he's the only one who can cook around here, Iggy makes the food. When I got Fang to the table, it was already laden with waffles, pancakes, sausages, bacon, etc. And the best part? We were the first ones down. "Sweet, we get first pick!" I said happily, and I saw Fangs lip barely twitch a little, which is the closest to smiling he's gotten so far. We both sat down at the table, and I made sure Fang filled his plate before I dug into mine. I eat like a trucker. Fang eventually started eating too, just as Iggy sat down at the table. There was a few minutes of silence as Iggy got his own food. Then, "Fang?" "Yeah." "You're the one Nudge was freaking out about yesterday, aren't you?"

Fang froze, and I mentally stabbed Iggy with my fork. After Fang didn't respond, Iggy prompted, "Well?" "Yes." Fang said, barely above a whisper. I could practically feel Fang cringing beside me, obviously waiting for Iggy to get angry with him. Instead, Iggy said, "I'm sorry. Don't feel bad about it, she'll get used to you after a while." Fang blinked. "Thanks." He muttered. Iggy smiled at him, just as the others tramped downstairs. Nudge immediately sat next to Iggy, and Gazzy and Angel at on either side of them.

About halfway through breakfast, Angel just had to open her mouth. "Why do you wear that jacket all the time Fang?" she asked 'innocently'. "Don't you get hot?" Fang just looked at her until she fidgeted and broke eye contact. After that, I knew Fang wanted to leave. But through sharp glances and kicks to the shins, I made him eat all his food. By then I was also done with my food, so we left the table together. He was going to go back upstairs to his room, but I didn't want him to. Without thinking, I blurted out, "Do you wanna hang out in my room with me?"

He turned and gave me a searching look. I wanted to kick myself. He'd probably prefer staying in his room all alone than hanging out with my bitchy self. Much to my surprise, his lip twitched again and he nodded. I blinked. "You seem surprised." He said quietly. "No." I said quickly, shaking my head. "I just didn't think you'd want to." "Why? Because I'm a freaky loner?" His face was completely flat, but I could see the look in his eyes. "No. Because im a scary psycho bitch. Anyway, let's just go." His eyes narrowed, and he obviously wanted to say something, but he let it go.

When we got into my room, he glanced around, letting his gaze linger on the wall behind my bed for a moment. Then he looked at me. "What do you use to play your music?" he asked, surprising me yet again. I pointed to the bedside table where my iphone was, the only thing I got from my parents I kept. "It's the only thing I use it for." Really, what _else_ would I use it for? He picked it up and scrolled through the songs until he found one he liked. To my third surprise in the last 5 minutes, Pain started playing. "You like Three Days Grace?" I asked. He nodded at me, and I couldn't help smiling.

(A/N I know, i know. It sucks. Completely. Im sorry.

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Silence)


	12. Chapter 12

Maxs PoV

Fang continued scrolling through the songs. When he saw something, he raised an eyebrow at me. "What?" I asked. "Black Veil Brides?" "Yeah. So?" He just shook his head. "What's that supposed to mean?" I couldn't tell if he was ridiculing me for liking them or agreeing with me. Probably the first one. "I like them too." My eyes widened a bit. Well, that was certainly a surprise. How many times has this kid shocked me today? 4? 5? "So." I said, sitting on my bed. "What else do you like?" I wasn't just trying to make conversation, I was honestly curious. Since he is going to be living in the same house as me for _x_ amount of time, why not get to know him better?

He looked back down at my song list. "Most of this, actually. Never heard Linkin Park, though." "What's your favorite?" He paused to think. "Three Days Grace." He decided. Just like me. "Wait, you've never heard Linkin Park?" He shook his head. I took my phone from him and hit pause on Pain. "What're you doing?" "Playing some Linkin Park." I answered, scrolling through all my songs. I settled on Breaking the Habit and hit play without thinking about it. Fang tilted his head slightly as he listened, making his hair fall over his eyes. About halfway through the song, I noticed he had his fists clenched. "I like it." He decided at the end of the song. "Awesome. I'll play some more then." I switched to Wretches and Kings, which is a different style than Breaking the Habit.

There's a thirty second intro before the song actually starts, and most of the song is rapping. I couldn't help tapping out a beat on my leg with my fingers. Usually I would be dancing around and head banging and all that crazy stuff, but now I just sat awkwardly while Fang stood against the red wall.

Fangs PoV

A couple of songs later, Max seem to get sick of the tension in the air. "Alright, enough of this." She said sternly, jumping to her feet. She quickly tapped on a new song. Animal I Have Become started pouring out from the phones tiny speakers, that could get surprisingly loud. She started bouncing slightly on her toes to the beat. My lips twitched a little, almost smiling at her antics. She sang along when the lyrics started, and I got to learn something new about her. She couldn't sing worth a crap. But she didn't seem to care, dancing around her room and head banging without a care in the world.

Then she grabbed my wrists and pulled me along with her. At first I was tense and robotic, as I always was, but after a couple of songs I surprisingly started to loosen up. I barely held back my smile as I spun her around. My mask finally broke when she grinned at me; I couldn't resist the super tiny smile that crept onto my face. She stared at me in amazement. "You're smiling!" she exclaimed. My smile grew ever so slightly when I replied, "I guess so." She laughed and spun again. As hard as I tried, as long as I was watching her, I couldn't put my mask back up.

But I also couldn't stop watching her. She looked so different than she usually did. She looked open and happy and free, instead of distant and closed off or angry. And it was nice, watching her smile and laugh like this. It made me feel not as dark and low as I always did. Not happy, not even close, but better than I had before. It was obvious she felt better for it as well. She was spinning again when she tripped and tumbled face first onto the bed, making her burst out laughing. I just gave a small smile, one that probably wouldn't even count as a smile on anyone else. But it was something.

She got back up and walked over to me. She grabbed my hands to pull me around with her some more, but she looked at my wrists and stopped. My jacket had ridden up to show some of the scars. Dread started building, and I tried to pull my hands away so that I could fix my sleeves. But Max tightened her hold on them and held them firmly in her much smaller ones, inspecting the scars with narrowed eyes, making me feel extremely uncomfortable. "Max, I-" "Can I tell you another secret?" she asked out of nowhere, looking up to meet my eyes. "Sure." I said. Anything to avoid the topic of my scars.

"I've thought about doing that." Suddenly I felt sick. "What?" "This." She said, running her thumb over one of the scars. I shivered. No way Max could have thought about doing this. "I wonder how everything would have turned out if I had done this instead of exploding." "Worse." I muttered. "A lot worse." She nodded. "I bet a lot less people would have been hurt by me, though." I looked away from our joined hands and at her face. It was younger and more innocent looking than I've ever seen it, a sad sparkle in her brown eyes. It wasn't open and shining or closed and dark. It was just… sad. Strange how anger makes you look older, but sadness makes you look younger.

"Be glad you didn't." I said quietly. Her eyes darted up to meet mine, looking confused. "You might have hurt people with your anger, but it's a lot better than tearing yourself apart." She blinked slowly, then gave me a slow nod. It was like she was taking time to process what I had said. Then she blinked rapidly and pulled away from me. Before I could catch myself, I felt disappointed. I quickly shut down the emotion, not knowing how to deal with it. Why would I feel disappointed? "Sorry." She muttered, looking away. She was closed again. I almost sighed, but bit it back at the last second. "I shouldn't have told you that."

"Don't be sorry."

(A/N REEEEEVVVVVIIIIEEEEWWWWWW PLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE

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Silence)


	13. Chapter 13

Fangs PoV

I didn't sleep again that night. I was thinking about Max again. At this rate I was never gonna get any sleep ever. I pulled my pillow over my head to smother my groan of frustration. If I die of sleep deprivation, I blame Max.

Maxs PoV

If I die of sleep deprivation, I blame Fang. I was burying my head underneath all of my pillows and pulling my blanket over it and staying there until I almost couldn't breathe and I still couldn't get him out of my fucking head! (Excuse the swearing, I'm a tad frustrated) Finally, I just pulled the blankets back and hopped out of bed. Time to go to the roof.

It's not the safest place in the house, which is why I like it. No one else follows me up there when I go. I go up there when I need to think, usually late at night. I left my room and climbed to the third floor, going past Fangs bedroom and climbing out the window at the end of the hall. Right outside the window was a trellis, which I used to climb up to the roof. The roof is slanted, but there's a ledge of concrete right on the edge that I always sit on. Then I can lean my back against the slanted roof and stare at the sky, which is exactly what I was doing when I heard a voice come from below me.

"Hey." I jumped and looked down. Fang was standing on the trellis, leaning his elbows on the ledge. "Don't sneak up on me." I scolded. "You'll make me fall off the roof." "I'll remember that." He said drily, climbing up to sit next to me. "How did you find me?" I asked. "I heard you go past my room. I got curious." "So you were still up?" He nodded, and I sighed. "You really should get more sleep." "That's a bit difficult." He said, looking at me steadily. His look was making me nervous. That's weird, I never get nervous. I swallowed and looked away from him, back at the sky.

"Do you know any of the constellations?" I found myself asking. "I've only ever heard of a couple of them." Fang shook his head. "Not really. The only one I know of besides the Big Dipper is Orion, and you can only see him in the winter." "I don't think I've heard of that one." I said. "He was a legendary hunter. The easiest part to see is his belt, its three bright stars all in a row, one slightly lower than the other two. Some say he holds a club, some say it's a bow, and some say he's holding a rabbit he hunted." I glanced at him. That was plausibly the longest thing he's ever said. He noticed me staring and muttered, "What?" a little bemusedly.

"Nothing. You just seem to be talking a little more." "You seem to be threatening a little less." He countered. I shrugged. "I've been taking my meds." He nodded at my short explanation. "Well, don't expect me to talk this much around the others." I shook my head. "I don't." For a while we sat in silence, watching the stars. "Fang, about what I said earlier, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-" "Its ok. Don't feel sorry about it." I sighed. "I just- hate seeming weak." He shot me a look. "Why?" "Juvy will do that to you. If you seem weak, chances are you'll get more than a few bruises. You become a target."

He nodded as if he understood. "Mind if I ask you a question?" He shrugged and said, "Sure." "Why do you like being called Fang?" He thought a moment and shrugged again. "I'm not sure. I just really, really hate my birth name." "I can respect that." I had a feeling that asking him why would be a really, really, _really_ bad idea. It probably has something to do with his abusive asshole of a dad. I don't want to push my luck and make him shut me out again. Then I thought, _Why does it matter so much to you if he did? Before he got here, you couldn't care less if someone shut you out! _

What the hell is going on with me?

"Max? What's your full name?" I looked at him curiously. "Why?" "Just curious." "My name is Maximum Ride. But just call me Max." He nodded, but his brow was furrowed, as though he was confused. "What?" "Nothing, I was just wondering. I've never heard of a super-rich influential family called Ride." I chuckled. "That's because I changed my name to Ride after I got out of juvy. My parents name is Batchelder." "Oh yeah, them I've heard of." He made a face, and I laughed. "What, you don't like them?" "No offense Max, but your dad seems like a pompous douche and your mom is just a bitch." "How did you know?" "The news. They're on it quite a bit, for some scandal or another. Or they were a year ago."

I laughed. "Well, you're right, that's exactly how they are." He gave me another super tiny smile that was barely there. Something is better than nothing, at least. "While we're on these subjects, how was school for you?" I asked. His shoulders tensed. "Hell." He said in a dark voice that made me shiver unpleasantly. "Why?" I asked softly. "Let's just say not all of my scars are from my dad." I shuddered, but I could feel anger boiling within me. "What's wrong with people?" I said scathingly. "Why do they treat others like there's something wrong with them just because they're different from everyone else!" "They don't know any better." "Like hell they don't."

My hand formed a fist, and it banged down on my thigh, hard. I didn't feel the pain. I kept throwing it down. "They could choose to have a heart! They don't have to act like that! They just don't care!" Fang surprisingly caught my wrist as I prepared to hit myself again. "Stop doing that." He said. I let my head fall back against the slanted roof. There I go, losing my temper again. "I'm sorry." I muttered. "I'm just so confused. I don't understand how someone could be so cruel to another human being." Fang shook his head, his hand still wrapped around my wrist. "it confuses me too." He said quietly. "And it makes me angry too."

I gave him a broken look. "Can't you tell me why?" I asked, like a little kid. "No one can, Max, because no one knows why."

(A/N Heres another chapter. Enjoy and review. Or hate and review. Either is cool with me. If you couldnt tell, i took out a little of my frustration in this chapter. Sorry about that.

UNC-

Silence)


	14. Chapter 14

Fangs PoV

Surprisingly, I fell asleep up on the roof. I slept for about three hours, until the sun came up. When I awoke, I expected Max to be gone. I was wrong. Not only was she still there, she was asleep with her head on my shoulder. I didn't move, for I didn't want to wake her up. I thought back to how she looked last night: frustrated. Unbelievably lost and vulnerable looking. I never want to see her look like that again. I far prefer the look she had yesterday morning.

As I was thinking this, Max started to stir. I looked down at her just as her eyes opened. She blinked several times and sat up, yawning and stretching. "Morning." I muttered, making her jump. She shot me a grin. "I thought I told you not to surprise me." She teased. I did another tiny, tiny smile, and shrugged. "Well, we should head inside. It gets really hot up here during the day." I nodded and followed her back down the trellis and through the window. "You hungry?" she asked as we walked downstairs. "A little." Actually, not really, but she was gonna make me eat anyway so what was the point of refusing?

"Liar." She scolded, nudging me with her shoulder and grinning. I smiled again, slightly wider than before. "You're getting better at this smiling thing." She said as we walked into the kitchen. I shrugged and hopped up onto the counter. "I guess I have something to smile about now." I said, shooting Max a look. She flushed and hurriedly pulled the fridge door open to hide her face. She pulled some things out of it, then closed the door and set them on the counter. The blush was muted, but not gone. "So." She said. "Why haven't you wanted to eat?" I shrugged again. "I just haven't been hungry."

She gave me a look. "Well, hungry or no, you're going to eat something." "And why is that?" She gave me a smile and walked over to me. She handed me a bagel and said, "Because if you starve on my watch, it's my responsibility." With a smile. I smiled a little too and took a bite of the bagel. She took a swig from a can of Mtn. Dew and grinned at me. She opened her mouth to say something, just as the house phone rang. Max sighed and set down her soda to grab the phone.

"Hello?" I watched her as she twirled a piece of brown blonde hair around a finger. Then her eyes widened. "Wait, what? Why?" I tilted my head to the side, wondering what was going on. "Can't you just tell me now?" She bit her lip. Kinda cute- wait, no. Nope, I did not think that. Not me. Then she sighed and said, a tad apprehensively, "Ok, I'll tell them. When will you be here?" Now I was confused. "Ok." She hung up without another word, then leaned her elbows on the counter and buried her face in her hands.

"What's wrong?" She looked up at me, her brown eyes tired. "The doctors are coming. "_Why_?" "Apparently they have something important to tell us." She rubbed her forehead. "Couldn't they have told you over the phone?" "Apparently not." I had to bite back a groan. I was not prepared for another visit from them just yet. "When are they coming?" "In an hour or so." Now I did groan, throwing my face into my hands. "I hate them." I muttered. I didn't intend for Max to hear me, but apparently she did as she answered, "I know. We all do." I looked up at her. She had her arms wrapped around herself, as though she was trying to protect herself. From what, I have no idea.

"Something tells me you hate them the most." "Well, I wouldn't know. I can't really get into the others heads and gauge how much they hate them, can I?" I smiled a little at her snark, but it was smaller than the last few were. I tilted my head again, studying her face. "Why are you so afraid of yours?" her head snapped up, her brown eyes clashing with mine. "I mean, all of us are scared, but you seem to be truly afraid of him. Why is that?" Her jaw clenched, and her nails started to dig into her upper arms. Eventually, she answered. "A. He's a creep. And B. I don't know how your hospital treated you, but mine was a living hell. That's why."

"I'm sorry. I went too far, didn't I?" I asked guiltily. She shook her head, but I could tell that I had. I had touched a subject I shouldn't have. "Sorry." I said again, in an almost whisper. "It's fine. Don't beat yourself up about it." Another minute of silence passed. Then, "I should go tell the others." I nodded. She nodded too and left the kitchen. I left my bagel on the counter and went outside to the tree, climbing as high as I could. Ok, note to self:_ Do not mention the doctors or the hospital around Max. Bad memories. _

She had told me not to beat myself up about it, but I was going to anyway. I always beat myself up, over everything and anything. Not exactly what one would call a 'healthy habit'. I don't know why, I just can't help it. "Fang!" I looked down. There was Max, standing on the ground thirty feet below me. "That was fast!" I shouted at her. "Yeah, whatever. Just get down from there!" I couldn't imagine why she would want to talk to me again after a few minutes ago, but I decided I might as well take what I can get. "Coming!" I yelled, beginning my descent.

When I reached the ground, I looked at her steadily. "What?" she asked, sounding self-conscious. I shook my head. "Nothing. Just thinking." "About?" "Wondering why you still want to talk to me." "Why? Because you brought up one uncomfortable subject? Come on, it takes more than that to get rid of me." She said with a laugh. I couldn't help smiling at her, just the tiniest bit wider than before.

(A/N There, another chapter. Have fun.

UNC-

Silence)


	15. Chapter 15

Fangs PoV

I followed Max back inside. "Do you have a pen or a Sharpie or something?" I asked, an idea coming to my mind. She gave me an odd look, but she went into the kitchen and came back with a black Sharpie. I took it from her and said, "Now hold out your arm." She held it out, and I took her wrist and turned her arm over so that I saw the underside of her forearm. Pale, smooth skin, so unlike mine. I pulled her down to sit next to me on the couch and uncapped the Sharpie. "I haven't done this in a long time, so I apologize in advance if this sucks."

Before she could say anything, I started drawing. I smoothly drew out the swoops of the outline of a pair of wings on her forearm. "Wow." Max breathed. "I didn't know you could draw." "I haven't in a year. They didn't have anything to draw with at the hospital." I said quietly, a small smile growing on my face. My smiles were slowly getting bigger the more I smiled. I began adding feathers. Really, it was just a series of slightly curved lines in the shape of a pair of wings, spanning across most of her forearm horizontally. If I shaded it in, she could get ink poisoning.

I finished my drawing and, rather reluctantly I might add, let go of her arm and capped the marker. She inspected it with a pleased look on her face. "It's awesome." She said, then looked up at me. "I love it." My smile grew, and now it would actually count as a smile on a normal person. "Thanks." Max murmured. "You're welcome."

Maxs PoV

Fang was getting better at smiling. I really liked the drawing he did on my arm, it looked kind of like a tattoo. However, I couldn't help notice how he seemed reluctant to let go of my arm, and somehow I didn't want him to either. I was rudely brought back to reality with the dreaded ringing of the doorbell. In seconds, the rest of the household had assembled on the stairs, staring down at me and Fang with big eyes.

"I got it." I said. I sounded calm and cool, but really I was freaking out. The only reason I could think of that the doctors might have for coming here off schedule was to send someone back. With a deep breath, I opened the door for the three doctors. To my dismay, one of them was mine, the creep. I stood to the side silently, letting them walk in. I shut the door and followed them into the living room. "Hello kids!" Nudges doctor said cheerfully. No one smiled at him, obviously remembering what he had done to Nudge. A moment of awkward silence passed, then he said, "So, how is everyone?"

"Cut the crap." I said bluntly, folding my arms. "Who are you sending back?" My doctor, Dr. Faust, gave me a weird look. "We aren't sending anyone back." He said with a sickening grin. "Then why are you here?" I questioned. "We've decided," started Nudges doctor, "That in two days, any friends or family members that might want to visit you will have the opportunity." Wait, WHAT? "Friends?" Nudge said. "Family?" Gazzy echoed. "Visiting?" Iggy said, raising his eyebrows. "Are. You. Fucking. Insane?" I hissed dangerously.

"Maximum! Do not use that type of lang-" I cut him off. "How on EARTH could you POSSIBLY think that is a good idea?" By the end of my sentence, I was shouting. There goes my temper again. Faust answered me, saying, "We know most of you have strained relationships with your friends and families, and we thought this would help." My arms fell to my sides and I felt my fists clench. The very _thought_ of seeing anyone from my old life was a nightmare. "Maximum." Faust said sternly. "I need to speak with you. Privately." My stomach clenched, and I could feel Fangs gaze on my back, but I didn't really have a choice.

I had to follow him up the stairs to the second floor, to the middle of the hallway. But really, it was me who stopped in the middle, not him. His eyebrows rose. "Don't you think we should talk in a more private place?" I resisted my shudder and said, "I think this is private enough." He scowled. "Fine." "So, what did you want to talk about so badly?" "The drawing, on your arm." I glanced down at the pair of wings. "Who drew that?" "Fang." I answered, becoming a little wary. What was this about? "The dark kid?" he asked. I nodded, wrapping my arms around my stomach. "So, would you say you two are friends?"

"I don't know why that would concern you." The way he was looking at me was making my skin crawl. "It concerns me because I need to know if anyone is willing to save you." "Excuse m-" Before I could even finish my sentence, he grabbed my shoulders and pushed me into the wall, making me exclaim, "Hey!" Then his hands were pushing up under my shirt while the rest of his body kept me pinned against the wall. "Don't touch me!" I couldn't pull back enough for a proper punch, and he didn't stop. I started pounding on him with my fists as hard as I could in 1 or 2 inches of space. It wasn't working.

His hands were all over me, and I was starting to get scared. "Stop it! Don't touch me!" He wouldn't stop, just grinned sadistically even though I was fighting like a hellcat. I was about to scream when a deep voice cut the air and stopped the perv in his tracks. "She said don't touch." His head snapped to the side, and I took advantage of his momentary distraction. I shoved him as hard as I could, making him stumble back, then swung my foot up between his legs. He bent over in pain, and I nailed his face with my knee. He fell to the floor, swearing, blood pouring from his nose. Then I ran to Fang.

Fangs PoV

Max dashed over to me and threw her arms around my middle. I didn't think about it, I just wrapped my arms around her shoulders and glared at the man on the floor. My blood was singing with fury, an emotion I didn't encounter often. I wanted to kill him, slowly and painfully for touching Max. He groaned and sat up, pinching his nose to make the bleeding stop. "Get out of here." I growled, seeing him get paler at the tone of my voice. "Now!" He scrambled up and raced down the stairs. I heard the stunned exclamations of his colleagues downstairs, then the front door slammed.

Good riddance.

(A/N Fun chapter, aint it?

UNC-

Silence)


	16. Chapter 16

Fangs PoV

Once the creep was gone, I looked down at Max anxiously. She was still clinging to me, her face buried in my chest. I stroked her hair and murmured, "Did he hurt you?" She shook her head, and I bit back a sigh of relief. She pulled away from me, and I reluctantly let her go. Now that most of my concern for Max was passed, I started to feel the full brunt of my anger. My hands coiled into fists, my breath started coming faster. I was truly seeing red. Max lay a hand on my arm, comfortingly. "Fang, it's ok. He didn't hurt me." she whispered. "He touched you." I hissed. Saying it out loud made me even angrier. Is this how Max feels all the time?

"I'm fine. Yes, he violated me, and I'm angry and scared, but you can't hurt him, not anymore than I already did. Can you imagine the hell that would rain down on you?" I ground my teeth, but forced myself to take a deep breath. My fists uncoiled. Then something she said stuck in my thoughts. Scared. She was scared. That he would have taken it farther, that he would have... I gulped and shut down the thought, along with the fury that arose with it. Unable to resist, I pulled her into my arms again, tucking her head under my chin, as though I could protect her. She let me, settling her head against my chest again.

I was pushing my luck, but I was glad I was.

Maxs PoV

I don't know why I was letting Fang get so close to me. But I was, letting him hug me close. Despite my heart still pumping with fear from my encounter with Faust, and my mind stewing with anger and terror, I let him hold me. It made me feel better, somehow. "I know you aren't happy about the visiting thing." Fang whispered in my ear. I felt a shiver run down my spine, but I ignored it. "No, really? How could you have possibly figured that out?" I said sarcastically. He ignored my jab and said, "Are you afraid your parents will come?"

I stopped and thought about it. I knew they didn't want anything to do with me, and I didn't want anything to do with them. The chances of them showing up were slim to nothing. So I shook my head and muttered, "They won't show up. They have no reason to visit their screw up daughter." It had come out more bitterly than I had intended, making Fang sigh in understanding. "You aren't a screw up." The words he whispered were so quiet I almost didn't catch them. A warm feeling rose in my chest, and I smiled into his shirt. Finally, someone who didn't think I screwed everything up, who thought I was actually worth something.

Its an amazing feeling. You should try it sometime. Just after this, we heard the front door close once again, and Iggy called, "Ok, they're gone!" Suddenly, I was very aware of how close Fang and I were standing, how his arms circled my shoulders protectively, how warm he was. And how I didn't want to leave. The thought made my cheeks burn, and I instinctively pulled away. I cleared my throat. "We should head downstairs." I said, already walking down the hallway. When I reached the stairs, I glanced back. Fang was standing in the same spot, staring at me. "Are you coming?" He blinked, shook his head, blinked again, and nodded before rushing over to me. I gave him a shaky smile and started to descend.

The moment I set foot in the living room, all eyes were on me. Now I understood why Fang was so freaked out by staring. "What happened Max? You went upstairs, then Fang went upstairs, then the doctor ran out with bruises and a bloody nose." Nudge said. In a moment I could feel him on me again, his hands roaming without hesitation or discretion or respect, and I shuddered. "Lets just say he was paying a lot of attention to me and it was unwanted." Iggy's face went red as the others tried to decode my words. He got it. "It's ok Iggy." I said. "I kicked his ass." He gave me a half smile.

"But what did Fang have to do with it?" Nudge asked, frowning in confusion. "He provided the distraction." I answered. Iggy shot him a grin, and Fang gave him a small smile, smaller than the one he had given me. "Wait, did Fang just smile?" Angel asked, her mouth dropping open. Fang just looked at her and said calmly, "Yes. Does that surprise you?" "Well, uh... I... um..." she stuttered, something she never ever did. I shot her a look, and she shut up. "Really Max, what did he do?" Iggy asked, referring to the doctor. My smile faded. "I don't want to talk about it right now." I said, awkwardly rubbing the back of my neck.

"Come on Max." "Iggy, please don't ask again. Please." That shut him up with shock. Usually I don't sound that vulnerable. I couldn't help it. I didn't want to relive it again.

Fangs PoV

That night I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking. Then I sat up with a frown. There was some noise coming from the second floor, but I couldn't tell what was going on. So I got up and walked downstairs. Maxs bedroom door was open, and I could hear voices coming from inside. I peeked inside. Max was asleep, but she was twisting and turning. A nightmare. Iggy and Nudge were looking at her nervously, trying to calm her down but failing. I stepped into the room. Max was muttering. "Stop it, go away." I could guess what she was dreaming about, and it made me feel sick and angry.

"I can't calm her down." Iggy muttered. "But you've done it before." Nudge argued, wringing her hands. "I know I have, but it isn't working this time." he argued back. "Can I try?" I asked, stepping farther into the room. Nudge looked surprised, and Iggy looked skeptical, but they let me walk over to the bed. Max was starting to freak out a little more, as though her nightmare was intensifying. When I reached out to lightly touch her cheek, she flinched away, whimpering, "No, please don't do this to me."

"Max, I'm not him. He's gone." I whispered, too quiet for Iggy or Nudge to hear but loud enough for Max. I brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, letting my hand rest there for a moment. "Please." she murmured. "He's gone, he won't hurt you. I promise." She shook her head. "It's just a dream, just wake up." Then to my delight, her breathing started to even out. Her face smoothed, her body untensed. Her eyes started to open, but before she could get a good look at me I was out of the room.

I don't like Max. I don't. I don't. I can't. She would squash me like a bug. After all, who could love an emo freak? Who could love a cutter? That's right.

****No one.

(A/N This is the first chapter to be uploaded from my new laptop! Y'all jealous? :P

UNC-

Silence)


	17. Chapter 17

Maxs PoV

I wasn't an idiot. I knew Fang was the one who had woken me up during my nightmare. What I couldn't figure out was why he had ran away after. What was he afraid of? Me? God I hope not. In any case, Fang didn't seem any different the next day, except in one respect. He wouldn't look me straight in the eyes. If he did, he would look away fast, and if I didn't know any better, I would say that he had a hint of a blush on his face when he did. No, I must be seeing things. Fang wouldn't blush, ever. Especially not over me.

A pair of finger snapped in front of my face. I pulled back suddenly, startled.

"Welcome back to reality." Fang said with a smirk. I shook my head to clear the cobwebs.

"Sorry, I zoned out." I apologized.

"What were you thinking about?"

"Uh.." I couldn't exactly tell him I had been fantasizing about him, could I? I mean, he would probably be... I don't know, weirded out. With my anger issues, theres was no chance he could possibly like me. Not that I like him, no, I don't. No way. Not possible. Not me.

He was still watching me expectantly, patiently waiting for me to pull my head out of the clouds.

"About the visiting thing tomorrow." I said, eventually coming up with a valid excuse. He nodded, but I could tell he was just playing along. To my dismay, I felt my face flush brightly and I looked down. Fang and I were sitting on the couch, he on one side and me on the other with the tips of our bare feet touching. My eyes, desperate to find something to focus on, landed on the drawing on my arm. It had barely faded at all since yesterday. It really was an awesome drawing, and I openly admired it.

"So I guess you like it." Fang said, tugging my gaze back up to his. Our eyes clashed, and I saw the slightest flash of red across his cheeks as he flicked his gaze to a spot just above my eyes.

"Yeah. I love it." I said softly, half smiling. His smile grew, now it was almost a normal smile. "You're getting better at that." I noted. Fang shrugged, but he looked pleased with himself.

"Why are you nervous? You said it yourself, they probably won't show." he remarked, leaning back against the arm of the couch and crossing his arms behind his head. He was wearing his jacket, as always.

"I know, but I'm still anxious about it. Aren't you?"

"Hey,I don't have anyone to visit me anyway. No siblings or other family relations, I haven't seen my mom since I was five, my dad probably still wants to kill me, and the only friends I had were the two that put me in that hospital in the first place."

"You have to be a little bit nervous."

"Ok, maybe a little." he said, shooting me a smirk. I smiled back, and he put his head back again. I bit my lip, watching him. He was getting more relaxed around me, and I around him. He talked and smiled a lot more around me, and he wasn't as tense and on guard as he was around the others. That in itself is a minor miracle.

"So." I said, crossing my arms and settling back against my arm of the couch. "Tell me more about these friends of yours."

"Their names were Sam and Dylan. (A/N Sooooo tempted to write Sam and Dean! :P) Now that I think about it, we weren't too close, but they were what I had." By the end of the sentence, his emotionless voice had a tinge of sadness.

"Well," I said thoughtfully. "If they brought you to the hospital, they must have thought it would help you. Which means they probably cared about you a little, at least. Right?" He just shrugged. I started to feel guilty for bringing up such a touchy subject, so I backtracked.

"Speaking of which, did you ever take any art classes?" His rigid posture relaxed, making me breathe a mental sigh of relief. Disaster averted.

"I did. I just sat in the back and kept to myself, and since everyone was focusing on their own work, no one usually bugged me." I smiled.

"What are you best at?" I asked, honestly curious.

"I wasn't too good at painting or sculpting, but drawing and sketching I was decent at."

"I think you're way better than just 'decent.'"

He lifted his head to smile at me, and my heart froze in my chest. Wait- pretend I didn't say that, ok? I don't know what's wrong with me. I really don't.

"Can you draw?" he asked me.

"Oh, no." I said, shaking my head really fast. "A five year old on acid could draw better than I could." Fang laughed, like out loud.

****I liked it**.**

****(A/N Kind of a filler chapter, but the next few should be very exciting.

UNC-

Silence)


	18. Chapter 18

Maxs PoV

The next morning came all too quickly. The moment I woke up, my stomach was churning with nerves. What if they did show up? What would they say to me? Probably more criticism. I sighed and rolled onto my side, pulling my blanket over my head. I didn't want to get up. A light tap sounded on the door.

"Max?" I was surprised to hear Fangs voice coming from the hallway. This was the first time that I knew of that he had sought me out instead of the other way around.

"What?" I groaned.

"Are you out of bed?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't wanna get up." My voice was whiny, like a five year olds, but I didn't much care. I was too occupied by the nerves induced stomach ache that had formed. I heard the door open, and buried my head under the pillows and kept the blanket firmly over my head. There was silence, then my bed sank a little.

"I'll give you one more chance to get up willingly." Fang said, extremely close to me. I just grumbled and curled up tighter. In an instant, Fang had yanked the blanket off of me.

"Hey!"

He leaned down, his breath right against my ear. I couldn't help my shiver, and hoped he would think it would be from the sudden loss of my blanket.

"Gonna get up now?" he whispered. I shook my head and gave him a stubborn glare. He just smirked and wrapped his arms around my waist. My heart froze in my chest.

"Fang what are you-"

He lifted me easily out of the bed and tossed me over his shoulder. I shrieked and flailed my arms, beating on his back with my fists. He ignored it and started walking out of the room.

"Put me down! Fang!" I shouted. I felt him chuckle, but he continued downstairs without setting me down. I didn't stop trying to get him to let me go, but he just ignored my efforts. Finally, we reached the living room. "Will you put me down now?"

"Hmmmmm... no."

"Then what are you planning on doing with me, since you refuse to put me down?"

"This." With that, he started spinning us both around in circles. My pleas for him to let me go turned to shrieks of laughter as the room around us blurred into a stream of colors. I could hear him laughing too, and the sound made my heart beat faster. The doorbell rang, and Fang abruptly halted spinning. He slowly set me down on my feet, both of us staring at the door. It was already starting.

"I'll get it." I whispered to Fang, already walking hesitantly towards the door. I grabbed the knob, took a second to pray that it wasn't my parents, then swung the door open. On the step were two adults, each with golden hair and stunning blue eyes. They were both smiling kindly.

"Hello." the woman greeted. They were married, based on the rings.

"We're here to see Angel." the man added. I nodded.

"Come in. You can wait in the living room while I go get Angel." I said, standing to the side to let them walk past. They saw Fang and stopped short.

"What happened to you?" the woman exclaimed. I just realized Fang was shirtless. All of his scars were on display. Fang's eyes widened in alarm, and he didn't answer the lady. He took off out the back door, probably to go hide in the tree. I sighed and held myself back from following him.

"Sorry about him. I'll go get Angel." I muttered, feeling numb as I trudged up the stairs. I felt bad for Fang, I really did.

"Angel." I called, tapping on the door. "Your parents are here to see you." The door flew open. Angel stood in front of me, her eyes wide. She was in pajamas, her hair in a messy bun, with not a hint of makeup on. She looked scared, then her face light up with a grin and she sprinted down the stairs. I could hear her happy exclamations as she met up with her parents.

If only she acted like that all the time.

The doorbell rang again. I knew Angel wouldn't get it, so I rushed downstairs again and opened the door. There was another couple, again with blonde hair and blue eyes, but neither as brilliant as Angels family.

"Hi. Is Gazzy there?" the woman asked, hope ringing in her voice. The man rolled his eyes. I shot him a glare, but smiled at the woman and let them in before going to get Gazzy. He was ecstatic, and ran down the stairs as quickly as possible. By this time, Iggy and Nudge had woken up and were sitting in the living room with the others, watching their conversations and waiting for someone to ring the doorbell for them. No one would be coming for me, so I went outside to find Fang.

As I thought, he was sitting in the tree. He was near the top, his head buried in his knees and his fingers linked behind his head. I scaled up as silently as I could and managed to sneak up on him.

"Boo."

He jumped, then rubbed his eyes with his fists, muttering. When he directed his eyes in my direction, I gave him an impish grin. I was on a branch above him, hanging by my knees so that I hung upside down in front of him. He gave me a smile that was small even for him and flicked my nose. He was trying to seem playful, but I saw the look in his eyes.

"Are you ok?" I asked, giving him a chance to tell me the truth first.

"I'm fine." I bit back my sigh.

"Ok, is 'Fine' Fang code for 'Not fine at all'?" Something in my look tugged his eyes up to mine. He sat there for a second, just looking at me. Finally, he sighed and let his head fall back against the trunk.

I let myself slip off my branch, flipping so that I ended up crouching on his branch.

"Come on, you can talk to me." I urged softly, settling down on the branch and scooting closer to him. He shook his head.

"I was just being stupid, forgetting to put my jacket on." He shrugged, trying to make it seem like no big deal. I sighed and scooted closer, letting my head rest on his drawn up knees. He tensed up, but after a moment he loosened up a little. I closed my eyes.

10 minutes later

"Max!" I jumped and almost fell out of the tree. Luckily Fang caught me around the waist before I could. If that luck held, hopefully he wouldn't see my blush. I gingerly looked down towards the ground, where the cry had come from. Iggy stood at the base of the tree, an expression on his face that frightened me.

"What's up?" I yelled down.

"Your parents are at the door!" My breath froze in my throat. My stomach clenched, and my head started pounding. No way. They couldn't be here, why would they bother? I gulped and forced my lips to move.

"Are you sure it's them?" My voice shook, but at this point I didn't really care. Iggy nodded. Oh God. I felt Fangs grip on me tighten a little more, as though to protect me.

"Well, can't you tell them I'm not here or something?" I was starting to panic a little... ok, a lot. Can you really blame me?

"Max, that won't solve anything and you know it." Iggy scolded me. I bit my lip, knowing he was right, and glanced at Fang. He was looking at me with a mix of concern and sympathy.

"Will you come with me?" I whispered to him. He looked startled, and his eyes flicked down to his numerous scars. But once he saw my pleading look, he sighed in defeat and murmured an assent. Don't ask why I wanted him with me, cause I don't really know. He just made me feel better, alright?

We started climbing down. My anxiety got worse with every step towards the house. Unfortunately, we had to reach the back door eventually. Iggy walked in without a problem. I looked at Fang. He gave me a reassuring half smile and nodded towards the door. I smiled shakily back, and took a deep breath. Then I forced myself inside.

Everyone there was talking to someone. Angel and Gazzy with their respective parental units, Iggy to a man that looked like his father, and Nudge to an older woman that was probably her grandmother or aunt or something. And there they were, standing in the middle of the room, looking at everyone with a hint of disgust, as though they were royalty and everyone else was a peasant. In their minds, that was probably true. My mother, Valencia, leaned forward to whisper in my dad, Jeb's ear. Jeb had greenish eyes, and his dirty blonde hair was graying. I would love to think that I had caused some of it.

Valencia was Hispanic. She had long dark brown hair and tan skin, and brown eyes. They both wore their usual business clothes: suits. They both had bluetooth in their ears too. I stood at a distance, staring. I hadn't seen them in two years, and now that I was seeing them again, I could feel my anxiety being replaced with anger. They ruined my life for so many years, then they dumped me at a freaking mental facility, and they still had the nerve to show here?

Valencia spotted me, and nudged Jebs side. He looked where she pointed, and in the instant he saw me his eyes changed. They went to bored and uninterested to barely held back disgust. I felt my jaw clench at that look. All this time, and I still wasn't good enough for them. Like I ever would be.

Valencia beckoned me forward with a perfectly manicured hand. I walked towards them, pulling Fang with me. I stopped a few feet in front of them.

"Maximum." Jeb greeted with a nod. Valencia copied the nod, but didn't say anything. Then Jeb's cold eyes landed on Fang, and they sharpened noticeably.

"Who is this?" he asked smoothly.

"This is Fang, my _friend_." I gave them a glare, letting them know that criticizing him wouldn't be ok. Both of their eyebrows rose at Fangs name. Their eyes skimmed over him, taking in his black hair, eyes, and jeans, as well as his olive skin and the scars that marred it's surface. They obviously didn't approve. Well, why would they? They never had before.

"You said he was a- a friend?" Valencia asked, speaking for the first time in her perfectly controlled voice. I nodded tensely, wondering where she was going with this.

"What kind of a name is Fang?" Jeb spat.

"What kind of a name is Maximum?" I snapped back at him.

"We named you for what we hoped you would be. And you failed." My hands curled into fists. I hated him, so much.

"And where did you get all those scars, boy? Gang fights, no doubt." Jeb continued mercilessly. Fang lowered his head. I could feel my temper rising. How dare he insult Fang like that? He didn't even know him and he was already assuming things about his life. Then again, that's what Jeb did best.

"Leave him alone." I growled, glaring.

"He looks like a street rat." Valencia stated, her nose crinkling with distaste.

"Look, I haven't seen you two in over two years, and the last time I saw you someone almost ended up in the hospital." I said. "So why are you here now?"

"We wanted to see if you had changed at all over the past two years." Jeb said snootily. "But it's obvious now it was a waste of our time. You're still the same worthless, useless, unwanted, psychotic piece of trash you were two years ago, with a self harming attention seeking freak as a friend, no less. You are still the same failure that you always were and that you will always be, Maximum."

I had stood there throughout the speech, feeling each word like a physical blow. When he had finished, my control snapped. With a strangled cry, I leapt for him. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to drive him into the dirt and make him bleed on the ground. I wanted him to feel like the failure that I had always been. I would have done it too. But Fang caught me around the waist and held me back.

"Let me go! Let me hurt him!" I shouted, fighting against Fangs grip. He just held me tighter.

"Max, you need to calm down." He murmured into my ear. "Hurting him will only make things worse."

Jeb had initially flinched back from me, but now he stood tall. He had a haughty expression on his face as he straightened his tie. He smirked at me, then snapped his fingers at Valencia, like he was heeling a dog. She obeyed, following him blindly as they turned for the door. He opened the front door, then turned to look back at me, still struggling to get away from Fang and punch that smirk of his pathetically perfect face.

"Oh, and by the way Maximum, we're disowning you. Basically, if you ever do get out of this place, you'll just be sent to foster care. Ciao." My jaw dropped.

"Get back here you coward!" I shrieked in outrage. He just laughed and closed the door behind him. I only fought for another few seconds, then I went limp. Shock and anger were twisting through me, and also a great deal of pain.

"Max? Are you ok?" Fang whispered in my ear.

"Fine. Can you let me go?" I murmured back. He hesitated, then slowly released his hold on me. As soon as he had, I was up the stairs, running for my room.

I had to be alone.

(A/N Dramatic, was it not? But the visiting part isn't over yet! BUUUMMMM BUUMMMMM BUUUUMMMMM! Review!

UNC-

Silence)


	19. Chapter 19

Fangs PoV

The entire room had fallen silent during that stunt, and now everyone was staring at me. I fidgeted, wondering if I should go after Max. She was furious, so I should probably let her calm down... I was saved from the awkward situation by the ringing of the door bell. I didn't stop to consider who would be standing behind that door, I just opened it. And I was not prepared in the least for who it was.

"Hey Fang." Sam greeted with a kind smile.

"Hey." Dylan muttered, his lip twitching as though he was trying to force himself to smile. I tilted my head to the side, wondering why they were here.

"Hi." I replied slowly, watching them warily.

"Can we come in?" Sam asked. I nodded and stood aside to let them through. Back in the house, everyone had resumed their conversations, and didn't give either boy a second glance.

"Follow me." I muttered to them, starting to lead them up the stairs. I wanted to talk to them privately, figure out why they were here. Because it certainly wasn't to visit me. They had never communicated with me in any way in the past year, so why now? I hoped it wasn't for the same reason as Maxs parents, to cut off any friendship between us. As we walked up the stairs, I could hear Max beating on her punching bag again. I sighed.

"What's that sound?" Sam asked.

"Thats just Max, working out some frustration." I said. "She'll be fine in a little while."

"She?" Dylan said, sounding interested.

"Yes, Max is a girl."

"How old is she?" I sighed.

"Our age." I answered reluctantly.

"Is she hot?" I clenched my jaw. Dylan was a player. His blonde hair and blue eyes guaranteed him basically any girl he wanted, and he used that. He didn't just date them for a week and drop them, he played with them. He made them fall for him and then he broke their hearts. And I wouldn't let him do that to Max, too. Just the thought of it sent anger surging through me.

"I guess she is." I muttered. Hot isn't really how I would describe her. It sounded so... disrespectful. Distant. Like only her body mattered. She wasn't hot. She's gorgeous.

"Hmmmm. Could you introduce us later?" Dylan asked. His eyes had that look I had seen so many times: hunger.

"Now isn't the best time." I said tensely. He didn't look happy about it, but he kept his mouth shut. How was I friends with this douche in the first place?

We finally got up to my room. I closed the door behind us.

"So why are you guys here?" I asked, crossing my arms and leaning against a wall.

"What do you mean?" Sam said, frowning as though he was confused.

"Cut the crap Sam you know what I'm talking about." I sent a glare at him. Dylan stepped in.

"Hey, Fang could we get some soda's or something?" I narrowed my eyes, and was about to refuse when a plan popped into my head. So I nodded, and left the room. But instead of going down to the kitchen, I leaned against the wall just next to my bedroom door. I know, I know, eavesdropping is wrong, but I don't care. For several seconds, there was silence, then Dylan spoke.

"Fang was asking the right question." he said. "What are we doing here Sam? Don't you remember all the crap we get at school for being friends with the emo?" My fists clenched. I knew it.

"I know Dylan. And really I don't know why we're here."

"This was our chance to prove we don't have anything to do with that freak. And you blew it!"

"I'm sorry Dyl. You're right. Maybe we should go, but after he gets back, so that it doesn't look suspicious."

I mentally sighed and turned to downstairs. They wouldn't know that I had heard them. I went to the kitchen and grabbed two sodas to take back upstairs, and was about to head back upstairs when I caught sight of the knives again. I stopped and bit my lip. Everyone thought I was hopeless. Everyone thought I was a freak. Everyone would abandon me eventually, even Max would. What was the point of fighting it anymore?

I pulled out the smallest knife and stuck it in my back pocket.

I walked back up to my room and tossed each of them a soda, keeping my pain off of my face. My mask that had slipped off around Max was firmly locked back in place.

"Thanks." Sam said. Dylan said nothing. There was silence for a few minutes, until I just couldn't stand them any more.

"Maybe you guys should go." I said. Sam looked like he was going to say something, but I cut in. "You know where the door is."

"Could you introduce me to Max first?" Dylan asked, a tiny bit of hope in his voice. I scowled at him.

"No, Dylan. I won't let you play with her heart the way you did with so many other girls." Dylan blinked, seeming shocked. Then he grinned.

"Oh, I get it. You like Max." I opened my mouth, but he kept talking. "I'm sorry dude, but you have absolutely zero chance." My blood was boiling. He didn't even know Max!

"Why?" I snapped. "Because I'm a freak? A cutter?" My eyes snapped sparks, but my mind knew he was right. I didn't have a chance with her. I had thought that many times before, but now it really hit home. I really did like Max. And I would never have her. That just added to the swirling mess that was my mind at this moment, and I felt even more desperate to get rid of them.

Sam and Dylan looked awkward, probably realizing that I had heard them talking.

"Just go." I said, looking away from them. I heard their feet pass me, and my bedroom door shut. I waited until I couldn't hear their footsteps anymore. Another second passed, then it all crashed down on me. All the pain I had been forced to hold inside over the past year just fell on me, feeling like a thousand pounds of weight had just been dropped on my head.

I can't do this anymore. I just can't.

_I'm sorry, Max._

Maxs PoV

I spent thirty minutes pounding my punching bag. Then I collapsed onto my bed, and something weird happened. I started crying. I hadn't cried in years. Yet here I was, curled in a ball on my bed, sobbing my eyes out. I cried for maybe ten minutes before my sobs slowed into shuddering breaths. I felt incredibly lonely, crying in my room with no one knowing about it. For probably the first time ever, I wanted someone.

I wanted Fang.

I sat up and wiped my cheeks. As I walked down the hallway towards the stairs, I could hear everyone still with their families downstairs. How nice for them. I went upstairs, instinctively knowing Fang would be in his room. As I got closer, I started to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, and increased my pace. I reached the door and knocked on it, not waiting for an answer before I walked inside. Fang was sitting on his bed. He had put on a black t-shirt.

But what really caught my attention was the bloody knife in his hand, and the red lines across his wrists.

(A/N Yeah... Fun. Review please.

UNC-

Silence)


	20. Chapter 20

Maxs PoV

I pressed a hand to my mouth as Fang looked up at me with dead eyes. During the times I had stopped him from this, his eyes had been swirling with so much emotion it was overwhelming. But now... they were just... empty.

"Oh my God, Fang." I whispered, rushing over to him. I hopped onto the bed next to him and gently took the knife from his hand. He let me set it on the floor, and he let me take his hands and look at the cuts. Blood was beading up, but it wasn't life threatening. There were six cuts in all, three on one wrist, and three on the other. They were placed in the spaces between the white scars, so that they almost made a pattern. White, white, red, white, red, white, red, white. I gulped and looked up at his face, tears welling up in my eyes.

"I want out, Max." He whispered, and I could see tears pricking at his own eyes. "I just want out." That cracked me, and tears raced down my cheeks as I threw my arms around his neck. I buried my face in his neck.

"I'm sorry." I whispered. "I'm so, so sorry." I felt his arms wrap around me, no doubt getting blood on my shirt, but right now I couldn't care less.

"I'm a monster." I heard him murmur, his voice laden with self-loathing.

"No, no." I muttered back, almost tripping over my words in my hurry to reassure him. "You're not a monster. And you aren't a freak, or weak, or anything you've convinced yourself you are. You're Fang, and you're the best person I've ever met."

He pulled away from me.

"Stop being so kind to me, Max." he said, pulling his knees up and wrapping his arms around them. He winced at his jeans touching his wounds, but he didn't move. "I don't deserve it." His eyes went to the knife that still lay on the floor, drops of blood falling to the floor and staining the wood.

"You do. You deserve it. Trust me." If anyone didn't deserve kindness, it was me. He didn't stop staring at the blade. His hand clenched into a fist.

"Stop looking at that." I said, reaching up and turning his head away so that he looked at me.

"I'm better off dead." he said, so quietly I nearly didn't catch it. My tears, that had almost dried up, started flowing again.

"You can't." I muttered urgently, wrapping my arms around his neck again. He shifted so that he could hug me again. I closed my eyes.

"You can't leave me here alone. Please don't leave me all alone." He didn't say anything. I looked up at him with tears in my eyes. There was nothing in his eyes, nothing on his face. He was completely blank. Slowly, I let my arms drop and my shoulders drooped. I realized it now: I didn't matter to him. It didn't matter how many times I begged him to stay. I forced my tears back, putting up my old mask of stone.

"Would you really do it?" I asked in a tough voice. "Could you really stand to take your own life while I'm sitting in front of you, begging you to stay?"

He said nothing.

"Despite what you might think, Fang, there are people who care about you. Maybe it's just me, who knows. But the point is _I_ care about you. I need you here, Fang. I really do. So go on. Look me right in the eyes, right now, and tell me you would still do it."

I stared at him stonily as he looked into my eyes.

"Well?" I questioned, after several seconds of silence. Then I saw some emotion start to leak into his eyes, slowly but surely. Guilt, mostly. Guilt and sadness and just a tiny bit of longing. Not good emotions, but it was better than blankness. Slowly, he shook his head.

"I couldn't. I'm sorry Max."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm sorry about how I was just then. I always get like that after..." he trailed off, but he didn't need to finish his sentence. I knew what he meant.

He pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me. I was surprised, but I didn't mind.

"You scared me." I muttered.

"I know. I'm sorry." Gee, lots of sorrys.

"Good news though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I know how to really help you now."

"And how is that?" his tone was hopeless. I reached up and secured my arms around his neck. I leaned my head against his chest.

"I will never abandon you. No matter what. You won't ever be alone again." I promised solemnly. His breath caught, but then he whispered in my ear, slightly breathlessly, as though he couldn't believe it.

"Thank you."

Maybe I mattered more than I thought.

Fangs PoV

I was still mostly numb from the cuts. But I was starting to feel guilty about them, certain that it would drive Max away. Then she said she wouldn't abandon me, and I almost couldn't believe it. The way she had challenged me had nearly convinced me that she hated me, but now she told me she wasn't leaving. It felt amazing, not being alone anymore. And I also realized something, hearing her beg for me to stay here with her: I mattered to her. Alot. More than I thought I did. Enough for her to promise to help someone others thought was impossible to help. I owed her big time.

"I'm sorry, Max." I said for the hundredth time. "Stop saying you're sorry." she scolded with a half hearted laugh, pushing my shoulder. She didn't get it. If she hadn't done what she had done, I would have ended it. I'm fully convinced of that fact. So I thank God she did.

Then I remembered. God I'm selfish.

"Are you ok?" I asked. She gave me a confused look. "After what happened with your parents." I amended. Realization crossed her face.

"It was pretty much how they were all the time." she said with a sigh, and I almost sighed with her. Her parents were vile, cruel people, telling their own daughter she was worthless.

"Fang?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm not really...worthless... am I?" I looked down at her in surprise. She was looking at me with big eyes and a sad expression, looking the youngest I had ever seen her. I took her face in my hands, feeling sparks, and made her look at me.

"Maximum Ride." I started seriously. "You are not worthless, or useless, or a psychotic piece of trash. You are not a failure. And I know this because you are worth everything to me." I hadn't meant to say the last sentence, but I did mean it. I also did not expect what happened next.

Max looked at me for a second, then she bolted upright and kissed me.

(A/N That chapter took me five tries to get right, and when I finally finished it, I just couldn't resist posting it, since I'll be crazy busy tomorrow. You're welcome. Review.

UNC-

Silence)


	21. Chapter 21

Fangs PoV

I was stunned. It only lasted a few seconds before Max began pulling away. My lips were tingling. As Max was sitting back, her eyes started to open again. Before they could, I swooped in and pressed my lips to hers again, my hand cupping her chin. My eyes shut, and I tilted my head to the side. Max copied me and scooted closer to rest her hands on my shoulders. This one was lasting much longer than the first one, which was more like a peck. A few seconds later, Max broke the kiss, but she kept her face only a few inches from mine.

She opened her eyes and looked right into mine. We didn't say anything. She just looked at me with surprise in her eyes.

"Why do you look so surprised?" I murmured. After all, she was the one who kissed me first.

"I just- I just didn't think you would kiss me back." She thought I wouldn't kiss her back? I didn't think she would think of me that way at all, never mind kiss me twice.

"You're crazy." I whispered, kissing her again. This one was deeper than the previous two, and lasted a couple of seconds longer. After it ended, Max spoke again.

"Well, I liked you, but I never thought I had a chance with you." She blushed as she said it, but I almost didn't notice. She liked me. Somehow, through my joy, I managed to make my vocal cords work.

"Ironically enough, I thought the same thing." Wait, I just said Joy. Was I... happy? I hadn't felt the emotion in a long while, so it took me a second to analyze it. Yes, I think I actually was... happy. It felt nice, being happy about something.

"Hello?" I snapped back into reality to find Max staring at me and her fingers tangled in the hair at the back of my neck.

"What happened?" She asked quietly. "You just zoned out."

"Just thinking." I replied with a smile.

There was a moment of silence in which she just looked at me.

"So what happened?" I gave Max a confused look, so she elaborated. "What made you do that?" she looked down briefly at my arm. Oh.

"While you were in your room, Sam and Dylan showed up." Max's eyes widened and she backed up, sitting in front of me and letting her hands rest on my shoulders.

"What did they want?" I chuckled bitterly at the question. Remembering this was starting to dull my new found happiness.

"Not even they knew that. Apparently everyone at our old school kept giving them a hard time for being the freaks friend, and they felt ashamed of it too. They despise me now." my voice was completely bitter, making Max sigh. Then she smiled sadly.

"They don't know what they're missing." she said, wrapping her arms loosely around my neck. That sentence made a small smile tug at my lips.

"Go on." she said in a sweet voice that I haven't heard from her before. "Smile. You've been sad enough for one day." Now I couldn't stop the smile from growing on my face. I was leaning in for another kiss when someone knocked on the door. Max sprang away from me until she almost fell from the bed, her face flushing brightly.

"Who is it?" I called, not taking my eyes off of Max.

"Iggy. I just wanted to tell you guys: the families are gone. You can stop hiding now."

"Kay. We'll be out in a second." Max said, and I heard Iggy's footsteps retreat down the hallway.

Once he had gone, Max left, and I was about to follow. Then I stopped.

Suddenly, I was extremely aware of the stinging on my arms and how noticeable the red stripes were. So I grabbed a long sleeve shirt from my closet and shrugged it on after peeling off my Tee. No one would have to know about my little relapse. Then another thought made my blood run cold. What happens when the doctors come again for their weekly check up? How would I hide these from them?

I shook myself. I would cross that bridge when I came to it. Right now, I would try not to think about it. My previous burst of happiness was almost gone after all of this. Well, a little bit is better than none.

Maxs PoV

I was ecstatic. I admit it, I kind of wanted to squeal like a typical teenage girl. Hey, don't judge. I know that there are tons of fangirls out there who would be doing exactly the same thing. Don't deny it.

Anyway, at the moment I was sitting on the couch in the living room with the others minus Fang. I was just about to head up and get him when he emerged from the stairwell, silent as ever. He was wearing long sleeves now. When he sat down next to me, I shot him a knowing look. He just shrugged.

"Alright guys." Iggy said, starting the conversation as he usually does. "Did anything interesting happen during your visits?"

"Well we all know what happened to Max." Angel said with a smirk. Gazzy snickered, and even Nudge smiled a little before covering it with her hand. I wanted to look down at my feet, but Fang bumped his knee against mine and I instantly felt better.

"Besides Max." Iggy said, shooting a look at Angel, missing her eyes by about an inch.

"My parents told me if I was good they would bring me home soon!" Gazzy cried joyfully, a grin splitting his cheeks.

"Wow, Gaz, that sounds great." I said sincerely.

"I guess you'll have to work extra hard to be good, then, won't you?" Iggy joked.

"I'm really happy for you." Nudge murmured with a shy smile. Fang didn't say anything, but he did give Gazzy a tiny, but heartfelt, smile.

"You're really lucky." Angel said, shocking us all. She looked sad for a moment, and her shoulders slumped. Then she seemed to realize what she was doing and sat up straight again."Anyway." she said, quickly covering up her vulnerable moment, "I asked my parents about going home. They said they would consider it with the doctors."

Each face in the room grew a little darker at the mention of them. Angel didn't have to say the last part. If her parents were asking the doctors about it, she wouldn't go home any time soon.

"My aunt brought me skittles." Nudge said softly, breaking the silence. I just now noticed the red bag in her lap, and the happiness in her eyes brought a smile to my face. Nudge loved skittles. She would have shared if someone asked, but no one did. Those were hers.

Iggy turned to Fang.

"I heard two guys show up for you. Who were they?"

"Just some old friends. Nothing exciting happened." Fang muttered, letting his hair cover his face. Apparently I'm the only one he's comfortable around at this point. That'll change. It might take a while, but it will.

"So, Max." Iggy said. "How did you deal with your parents?"

"Oh you know, beat up a punching bag. Tried not to damage any walls." _Kissed Fang_. I thought in my mind.

I hoped no one could see me blushing.

(A/N ok, this took me so many rewrites to get right, you have no clue. Please, enjoy and review.

UNC-

Silence)


	22. Chapter 22

Fangs PoV

I waited until 11 at night before going to Maxs room. Heads out of the gutter, guys. Believe it or not, I actually had to talk to her about something important. Anyway, when I reached her door, I didn't bother knocking as I walked in. As soon as I did, my reason for talking to her flew out of my mind. Max was standing near the opposite wall, her back to me as she slipped a large shirt over her head. Really all I saw was the shirt falling over the small of her back.

I was going to say hey, but I decided on something more fun. I snuck up behind her silently, then when I got close enough, I wrapped my arms around her waist and slipped my hands just underneath the shirt. I might not look like it, but I was a little hesitant about this. I wasn't sure if I would be overstepping my boundaries or something.

Max jumped, but then she relaxed, which was a good sign. She tilted her head back against my chest and stared up at me, a small smile on her face. Another good sign.

"You should make more sound when you move." she said quietly. "You'll give someone a heart attack someday."

I chuckled slightly at her. Yes, I chuckled. I couldn't help it, it was Max. Around any of the others, I wouldn't have, but... You know what? I don't have to explain myself to you.

"Can I borrow a kiss? I promise I'll give it back." I said, giving her a wide eyed innocent look. I might have sounded flirtatious, but I was legitimately asking for permission. I just wanted to make sure she was still ok with this. Turns out I didn't have to be nervous.

Her smile widened and she turned around to face me.

"Oh I suppose I can lend you one." she said, moving her hands up to my shoulders. I smirked, but it was quickly erased by Maxs lips. One kiss turned to two, and two to three. Then Max pulled away. I whined a little in the back of my throat and opened my eyes to see her staring at me with amusement dancing in her eyes.

"You asked to borrow one." she said. "You owe me three more. Plus interest." I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really? And how much interest do I owe you?" I asked. She smirked slyly and ran her hands down my torso, making me shiver. Then she stood on her toes and put her lips next to my ear.

"I'll tell you when to stop."

I half smiled and leaned down to her lips.

"One." I murmured, kissing her gently. After a few seconds i pulled away and angled my head the other way.

"Two." I kissed her again.

"Three." One last kiss.

Then I pulled away and looked her in the eyes. She was panting a little, as was I.

"And the interest?" she murmured breathlessly. I clicked my tongue in mock displeasure.

"So impatient, Maximum." I teased, earning a glare from her for the use of her full name. "All you have to do," I continued, leaning closer, "Is wait."

I pushed her back gently against the wall, my hands on her hips. One of my hands briefly brushed her hair away from her neck, returning to her hip as my lips kissed her neck. I felt her sigh and move her head back, giving me more access to her neck. I kissed it up and down, eventually settling on her pulse point. I felt her gasp, and couldn't help but smirk against her neck.

"I can feel you smirking." she breathed. I chuckled, and let my teeth graze her skin. She jumped, making me chuckle again.

She playfully whacked my shoulder. I decided to tease her a little.

"I take that to mean I've paid enough interest." I said, pulling away from her neck. I could almost swear she made a small disappointed sound, but she's Max. No way she would have.

"Hey," she mumbled crossly, grabbing handfuls of my hair. She yanked, pulling my head back down till it was mere inches away from hers. "I didn't tell you to stop."

"So controlling." I whispered, letting my fingers trace small circles just underneath her shirt. I felt her shiver, but her eyes still blazed with annoyance.

"I'm not done with you yet." she hissed, then yanked again, closing the few remaining inches between us. I completely forgot about about my teasing and kissed back as hard as I could. My hands moved up and cupped her cheeks, my thumbs stroking her cheekbones. Her hands left my hair and trailed down my arms. She closed her fingers around my wrists, and I couldn't hold back my wince of pain when she pressed my shirt sleeves to my cuts.

She immediately pulled away, looking at me with concern.

"I'm sorry." she breathed. I shook my head, meaning it was fine. But she didn't let go of the subject.

"Let me look at them." I sighed, but I let her push my sleeves up. She studied the raw wounds, biting her lip. My happy expression had fallen, replaced by my old mask. Max, with a sad look on her face, traced the cuts with one finger.

"Max."

"Hmm?" she murmured, not looking up. I remembered what I wanted to talk to her about.

"What am I going to do? Tomorrow, when the doctors come?" That got her attention, and she looked up at my face. I could see the wheels turning in her head.

"Um, I guess we could put band aids on them and cover it with concealer." she said uncertainly. I made a face. "Well, do you have a better idea?" I slowly shook my head, realizing I didn't.

"But where are we going to get the things we need?" I asked.

"Angel." I stared at her uncomprehendingly. "She has every type of makeup in every shade and color imaginable. Trust me, she'll have what we need."

"What makes you think she'll give it to us?" Angel isn't exactly the co-operative type.

Max just shrugged helplessly, and I felt guilty. I made her feel like that.

"We'll just have to try." she said. I nodded. Then she frowned and looked at my face.

"Don't look like that. Please don't look so sad." she said, laying the back of her hand against my cheek. I put up one of mine and held it there.

"I'm sorry." I whispered. "I just feel guilty about making you do this for me. It's my problem, not yours." I could barely say this out loud. I wasn't used to actually telling people what was going through my head. Usually I locked everyone out.

"No." Max whispered, leaning her head on my chest and wrapping her arms around my waist. "I told you you weren't alone anymore, and I meant it. I am helping you, and there's nothing you can do about it."

A small, sad smile appeared on my face, and I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and rested my head on top of hers.

"Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me, Fang."

(A/N Very fluffy chapter. Oh well.

UNC-

Silence)


	23. Chapter 23

Maxs PoV

I woke up the next morning at about 7 a.m. The doctors always come at 8, and I had to take a shower. But I didn't want to get up. I was perfectly happy here with Fang. Yes, we slept in the same bed. Get over it.

I was curled up against Fangs chest, and he was clutching me like I was his teddy bear.

"Fang." I muttered, lightly tapping his face. "We've gotta get up." He just mumbled something unintelligible and buried his face in my neck, part of it covered by my hair.

"Come on Fang." I whined. "I have to go take a shower."

"No." he mumbled against my neck.

"Fang!"

"But I don't wanna get up." he said childishly, ending the sentence by pressing his lips to my neck.

"Neither do I, but we have to." I sighed.

He levered himself up on his hands so that he hovered over me, a pouty/sleepy look on his face.

"Can't I convince you to stay?" he murmured, a smirk in his eyes.

"Hmmmmm..." I put a finger on my chin and looked up at the ceiling, pretending to think. "No."

"Maaaax." he whined, looking at me pleadingly.

"Look, its already 7:15, the doctors will be here by 8, we both have to shower, then I gotta go beg Angel for the concealer, not to mention actually hiding your cuts." I said seriously. Thankfully, he got the 'playtime is over' message and reluctantly let me get up. As I walked out of my room to head for the hall bathroom, I called back over my shoulder.

"Make sure no one see's you leaving." I didn't want any of the others to find out yet. He nodded, and I shut the bedroom door behind me.

I took possibly the fastest shower I have ever taken, only about 5 minutes. I went back to my room and Fang headed for the shower while I got dressed. I yanked a brush through my hair *gasp*. When I started up the stairs for Angels room, Fang was still in the shower. I paused in front of Angels door, taking a moment to silently pray that she be in a helpful mood. Yeah, right.

I knocked.

"Come in." She called without asking who it was. I took a deep breath and pushed the door open. She looked up from her large dresser mirror. She was dressed, and was currently applying her flawless make up. She saw who it was, and was obviously stunned to see me standing in the doorway.

"Hey Ange. Um, this might sound a little weird, but I need a favor." I said, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly.

"What favor?" she asked warily, setting down whatever powder she was applying to her eyelids.

"I, uh, need concealer in Fangs shade."

Angel blinked, but other than that she didn't seem overly weirded out. She just asked,

"Why?" I was hoping she wouldn't ask that.

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you. But it's really, really important." I said, a pleading tone in my voice. Yes, I was begging her. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

"He relapsed, didn't he?"

My jaw dropped. She was completely calm, not fazed in the least. I on the other hand was freaking out. I hadn't told anyone about Fang's cutting problem, how could she have known?

"Don't look so shocked Max. It's kind of obvious." I bit my lip. I couldn't tell if this was good or bad.

"Ok." I said shakily. "Yes, he relapsed, and if the doctors see, he'll be sent back. Please Angel, this is so important." She just smirked at me and sat back, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You like him." she accused.

"Angel..." I really didn't have time for her games.

"Don't you?" Angel demanded, her eyes blazing. She obviously would not let this subject go until I admitted to it.

"Yes, ok? I like him. Now will you please help me?" I expected her to refuse, or to insist on more details and secrets. But instead she smiled at me and turned around in her chair, digging through her drawers until she found what she was looking for. She straightened and tossed me a small container of concealer.

"Thank you, so so much!" I exclaimed, turning to run back downstairs.

"Max, wait." I turned back around, a confused expression on my face. What did she want? Was she expecting something in return? Instead, she just tossed me another small jar of concealer, much lighter than the first. I frowned down at the glass container, wondering why she was giving me another one.

"That one's for you." she said slyly, two of her fingers tapping on her neck. "For that hickey on your neck."

My jaw dropped and my hand flew up to my neck, my face burning crimson. She was smirking. I remembered I could move my legs, and quickly shut her door behind me as I rushed down the stairs. I swear I could hear her laughing at me.

Fangs PoV

I had just pulled another black short sleeve shirt over my head when Max walked into my room, closing and locking the door behind her. She had bandages and two jars of concealer in her hands.

"I see Angel cooperated." I noted, nodding at the jars. "But why two?" Max just stalked across the room and punched my shoulder. Hard.

"What was that for?" I exclaimed, rubbing my arm.

"That was for giving me a damn hickey." she hissed. I couldn't help chuckling a little.

"Sorry." I chortled. "But I couldn't resist."

She growled, but I could see the playfulness in her eyes. She wasn't really mad. With a smile, I wrapped my arms around her waist lighting fast and pulled her down onto my bed. We both landed on our sides, our feet tangled together and dangling off the edge with our faces level.

"Fang, come on we need to be serious."

I ignored her and nuzzled her neck, breathing in her intoxicating scent.

"Fang!" she said sharply, smacking me upside the head.

"Ow! Ok, ok, we can be serious now! Gosh." I mumbled, begrudgingly pulling myself away from her. I rubbed my head where it hurt from her whacking it, and that wasn't even all of her strength. So far this morning I had already been punched and smacked by her, though both of those times were mostly my own fault. Max sat up and held out her hand.

"Arm." she ordered. I rolled my eyes, but let her take my arms. She didn't waste time, quickly sticking bandages on each of the cuts. She made sure they were completely sealed, then started applying the concealer. She was an expert at it, I couldn't tell the bandages were there at all.

"Nice job." I said, inspecting them. "How did you know how to do that?" She half smiled.

"I refused to wear any other make up, but my parents always insisted I cover up the injuries from my various fights." she explained. I nodded in understanding.

"You should cover this up." I advised, lightly touching the bruise on her neck. "Don't want the doctors to see it."

"Good point." She quickly applied it to her own skin, with a little help from me.

"Alright. We look presentable." I said proudly once we had finished.

"Yeah. But this means you can't touch my neck until they're gone." she teased with a smirk. I playfully scowled, but before I could retort, the doorbell rang. Show time.

Maxs PoV

Fang pulled on his jacket, careful not to smear the cover up, then we bravely headed downstairs. I kept one hand behind my back while I opened the door, and Fang held it. When the door was open, I was shocked to see my doctor standing among them, several stitches in his face. Uh oh, this wouldn't go well. Fang squeezed my hand, feeling me tense up.

The doctors walked inside, and Fang was forced to let go of my hand. From upstairs, I could hear Iggy urging the others down the stairs. Once we were all gathered in a group downstairs, with me and Fang both watching my doctor suspiciously, the leader spoke.

"All right kids, you know the drill." We did know the drill, splitting up into separate rooms to be interrogated individually. I would have to be alone with Faust. Shit.

Fang risked squeezing my hand quickly, and whispered into my ear,

"If he tries anything, just scream. I'll be there."

(A/N Well, the next chapter should be dramatic.

UNC-

Silence)


	24. Chapter 24

Fangs PoV

The last thing I wanted to do was leave her alone with Dr. Creepy. He was probably going to try to molest her again, or worse. But I couldn't do anything about it, which made me tense and nervous as hell. If he lays a single finger on her again, I won't hesitate to kill him.

"So, Tony." 'my' doctor said, settling down in her chair in the kitchen. Max was in the living room, which meant I couldn't see her, but I would be the first person there if she screamed.

"That's not my name." I muttered. I couldn't help it, I hated my birthname with a passion. The woman frowned.

"Don't be ridiculous." she scolded, but she didn't say anything else about it. She just scribbled something on her clipboard and looked back up at me expectantly.

"Well." she said. "Lets see them."

My stomach churning, I carefully pushed up my jacket sleeves, my mask in place. The concealer still looked good, but I noticed it covered a few of my scars as well, not just the cuts. I prayed the womans cold eyes wouldn't spot the slight difference. She studied my arms carefully, more carefully than last time, her eyes narrowed. But after an excruciating few seconds, she nodded. I yanked my sleeves down again, mentally breathing a sigh of relief. I was out of the woods.

"Now, how about you tell me how visiting day went yesterday?" she said, leaning back and crossing her legs. I shrugged.

"Nothing to mention." I muttered, keeping my head down with my hair falling in my eyes.

"Come now, Tony, there must be something worth talking about."

I gritted my teeth. These adults get on my very last nerve. I didn't bother responding, I just gave one sharp shake of the head.

"Fine then. Have you made any friends yet?" she said it as though she expected me to say no. If her tone had been different, maybe I would have said no, just so they don't have anything to potentially use against me. But now I itched to prove her wrong and make the smug look on her face slide off.

"Yes." I mumbled simply, still not looking at her.

"Oh?" I could practically hear the raised eyebrows in her voice. "And who might that be?"

"Max."

"Ah, the girl with the anger issues." My jaw clenched. Is this how we were known to them? No names, no faces, just 'the girl who screams' and 'the boy who cuts'. I was sick of it, sick of them. I was sick of being treated like less than them because we actually felt something. I'm sick and I'm tired and I'm fed up with them and all of their pompous, cruel shit. I crossed my arms tightly, my mind still roiling.

Max was a person. She has a name and a face and a personality that no one could compare to, yet she was still treated like crap. She was still treated like an idiot and an inferior and a science experiment to play around with without consequence. And I hated it so much. I hated them. I despised them, with all my heart and soul, if I still had one.

As far as I'm concerned, they can all burn in hell for eternity.

"Tony? What are you doing? Daydreaming?" What part of 'Don't call me Tony' did this gargoyle of a woman not understand?!

"I'm fine." I ground out. "Are we done here?" I peered up at her through my fringe, taking in her stunned expression.

"I- yes. We are. I'll see you next week." she stood up and briskly walked out of the room.

I didn't waste any time.

Maxs PoV

I was stuck in the living room. I stood near the kitchen door, my arms wrapped around my stomach, staring suspiciously across the room at the doctor. He seemed perfectly composed, his hands behind his back. His eyes weren't nearly so courteous, roaming my body in places they shouldn't have. I longed to slap him, hard, but I didn't want to get into trouble.

"Max." he said, his hands moving out from behind his back. I instinctively tensed up, images from my last encounter racing through my mind.

He held his hands up in a supposedly calming position and took a step forward. I stepped back. I didn't want him anywhere near me. I could still feel him, on my skin, under my clothes. I wanted it to stop. I wanted him gone. So. Badly. He stepped forward again, and I stepped back, feeling my back hit the wall. He took another step, and there was nowhere for me to go.

"Don't." I said in a dangerous tone, digging my nails into my sides. "Stay away from me."

He just took another step. He was only about five feet from me now.

"Stop." I hissed. "Stop moving. Or I swear to God I'll scream." He stopped.

"I don't want to hurt you Max." he said.

"Bull." I responded, pressing myself against the wall.

"Come on. It doesn't have to be so hard." He taunted. I shuddered. "All you have to do is relax and enjoy yourself." He gave a sickening smirk. I felt bile rising in the back of my throat as my flashbacks grew more vivid.

"No." I choked. "No, don't you dare touch me again. I'll kill you." He just chuckled darkly. I could see him clearly now, in my mind, identical to how he looked now. Eyes wild with lust, mouth twisted into a sickly grin, hands on me, touching me. I gulped and shut my eyes. It didn't help. They won't stop. Why won't the memories stop?

"Max?" That wasn't the doctor. My eyes shot open to see a worried looking Fang standing in front of me, one hand hovering as though to touch my shoulder. The doctor was about two feet behind him, glaring at the back of his head.

I nodded to Fang, telling him I was ok. He started to lower his hand to my shoulder, but I quickly shook my head. He stopped, looking concerned.

"Memories." I breathed. "Just give me a second." Understanding flared in his eyes, and he nodded, then turned to face the doctor.

"I think this session," he said in a voice of ice. "Is over." The doctors eyes grew wide, and he didn't waste any time running from the house. I walked over to the couch and sat down, rubbing my arms. Fang sat next to me, careful not to touch just yet.

It took a few minutes, but the memories faded, and I slipped my hand into Fangs.


	25. Chapter 25

Fangs PoV

Max slipped her hand into mine. I breathed a sigh of relief in my mind and squeezed her hand. She would be ok. She leaned into my side, and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, switching her hand to my free one.

"Are you ok?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah." she responded. "Sorry. I just-"

"I get it." I interrupted. I knew what it was like. She lay her head on my shoulder with a sigh. I lay my head on top of hers, rubbing her arm reassuringly.

"So I take it he tried again?" I asked.

"Yeah, but he didn't actually touch me this time, thank God." My jaw tightened. I was still furious, but at least he didn't succeed. But... he still scared her. And that in itself is enough to make me want to beat him into next year.

"Quit brooding, I'm fine." Max said, lightly hitting my arm. I smiled to myself. She was back to her old snarky self.

"Alright, no more brooding." I told her with another smile. I pulled her in and kissed her forehead. "I just wanted you to be safe."

"And I am." she responded, giving me an impish grin. I gave a faltering half smile in return.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her brown eyes concerned.

"Nothing." I sighed. "I'm just... tired."

"Tired of what?" she asked, obviously catching my real meaning.

"Of everything. Of people treating others like they're less than them because you do something they decided was bad. People are supposed to be kind to others. We're all taught to respect each other and 'if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all.' But people still hurt others so badly, then call them weak or pathetic because other people in the world have it worse. I'm just so sick and tired of all of it. I'm just... done."

I hadn't meant to rant. But it was all swirling around in my head, and if I didn't let it out, I would just end up with more scars.

"I hate the feeling." I continued. "When you hate everything around you and you can't and escape. You know you can't escape and you know that nothing you say or do will change it and you just feel so unbearably trapped."

Max sighed and rested her head on my shoulder.

"I know the feeling." she whispered. "Trust me, I know. And I hate it too."

"And when you try to tell someone else, all they do is tell you to take your emo shit somewhere else, or insult you until you want to throw yourself off a cliff. Why are people so cruel?" I sounded just like Max had out on the roof.

"I don't know. I really don't. But I promise you, I won't be like them." Max reassured me, rubbing my arm.

"Thanks." I said, kissing her cheek.

"I already told you, you don't have to thank me."

Time Skip

Half an hour later, all the scientists had gone. The group gathered back into the living room to discuss their encounters. This time, Max sat beside me. We didn't touch hands or anything, but sat close enough together that our legs pressed against each other. Gazzy didn't even wait for Iggy to start, he just leapt right in.

"The doctor said I can go home!" he cried happily.

"Thats amazing! When?" Max said, an enthralled look on her face.

"In one or two weeks!"

Nudge grinned, very unlike her, and walked over to Gazzy. She bent over and hugged him.

"I'm happy for you." she said, in a louder tone than usual, before returning to her seat beside Iggy.

"That's great Gaz." Max said with a large smile. "We sure will miss you around here."

"The first one to go home. Congrats." Iggy said with a grin.

"I'm sure your parents will be very happy to see you." Either Gazzy didn't catch the sarcastic glint in Angels voice or he just chose to ignore it. Probably the latter.

"They'll love having you back." I put in. I ignored everyones stunned looks and gave Gazzy a half smile. He grinned at me.

Time Skip Again

That afternoon, when the others were all off doing whatever in the rest of the house, I laid on the couch with Max. She lay in front of me, and I had an arm thrown loosely over her waist. The TV was on, but I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy playing with Maxs hair with my free hand.

"I really will miss Gazzy." she said with a slight sigh.

"Yeah, me too." I replied absentmindedly, still twirling one of her curls. She twisted around to face me, thus pulling said curl from my fingers. I just picked up another one and continued with what I was doing.

"Why are you so amused by my hair?" she asked, a slight laugh in her voice.

"Because it's pretty." I answered honestly, making her smirk at me.

"Oh really?" I nodded to her, keeping my eyes focused on her hair and not on her just to irk her. Unfortunately, she ruined my plans by kissing me. I smiled and kissed back.

Man, I was so whipped.

Third Person PoV

Nudge froze on the stairs. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Max and Fang, laying on the living room couch, kissing each other. She continued to watch, her jaw on the floor, as Fang ran his hand down Maxs side, not going any farther than her hip. Max rolled so that she was straddling him, her hair falling forward to cover both of their faces. Both of their heads turned to the side to deepen their kiss.

Nudge knew the two had grown closer, but she hadn't known it was this close. Now that she was over her initial surprise, she shut her mouth and observed closer. She wanted to make sure that one of them wouldn't hurt the other, mainly Fang hurting Max.

After a few more seconds, Fang pulled away and gave her a smile bigger than Nudge had ever seen on his face. He nuzzled her neck, making Max giggle slightly, then shifted so that they lay side by side again. Fang closed his eyes and buried his face into Max's hair, holding her protectively. Max looked more relaxed than Nudge had ever seen her.

Nudge was satisfied. She would still tell Iggy about them, but she was assured that no one would be hurt in this relationship.

They were just too cute.

(A/N Ok, I gave you a fluff ending to make up for the rant in the middle. Sorry, I just seem to be getting really frustrated and angry lately and I tend to take it out on fanfiction. Sorry again. Review please.

UNC-

Silence)


	26. Chapter 26

Third Person PoV

"They were WHAT?" Nudge flinched away from Iggy, slightly startled by his outburst. She had waited until the morning after she had seen them to tell Iggy, but now she was wondering if that was the best idea.

Iggy didn't even wait for her to answer, he just rushed out of his room and towards Maxs.

"Wait." Nudge said, catching his arm just as he was about to throw the door open. "Just listen for a minute." He pulled his arm away. He didn't want to listen to her. At that moment, music started playing from Maxs room. They could hear Max singing along, badly, but then she stopped.

"Come on." Iggy could hear her voice on the other side of the door. "Fang, you have to sing too." Iggy blinked. Fang was in there too?

"Uh, no." came Fangs deep voice.

"Why noooot?" Max whined.

"Because I'm not any good at it."

"Neither am I."

"Touche."

"So? Will you? Pleeeeeeaaaassseee Fang?"

"Nope." Iggy noticed that Fang seemed to be a lot more talkative than usual, and his voice wasn't as guarded as it usually was.

"Please? For me?" Even though Iggy didn't know what Max looked like, he could imagine her giving Fang the puppy dog eyes. Iggy heard Fang sigh.

"Fine, just a few lines." He waited for the next part of the song they were listening to, one Iggy didn't particularly like but he didn't really hate either.

We're bored to death in heaven

and all alone in hell

we only want to be ourselves

Iggy was surprised by how well Fang sang. Much better than Max, thats for sure. But that didn't stop her from jumping in for the next part.

We scream

We shout

We are the fallen angels

Iggy heard them both laugh, which was a shock to hear coming from Fang, then the unmistakable sound of a kiss. His fists clenched, but Nudge grabbed his arm again.

"Come on Iggy," she hissed, so that Max and Fang wouldn't hear her. "I saw the look on Fangs face yesterday. He won't hurt her." Iggy looked like he was going to ignore her, but then they both listened as Max and Fang started talking again.

"Max, are you sure about this?" Fang asked.

"What do you mean?" Max said, sounding surprised.

"I just- want to make sure you're ok with it. I don't want you to feel like you're being pressured or forced into anything." That was exactly what Iggy had been worried about, Fang forcing Max into things. He didn't like thinking that way, but the fact was no one here except for Max knew anything about Fang. He just couldn't be sure. Yet here Fang was, making sure he wasn't doing anything wrong. Fang just kept surprising him.

"Fang. I've already told you, I'm fine with it. If I feel like we're going to fast or something, I'll tell you. Ok? Now stop worrying."

"I'll always worry about you."

Iggy heard them kiss again, but this time he didn't move. He stood still, thinking, going over everything he just heard in his mind. Max had sounded much more open than usual. She sounded happy. And Fang was talking 100 times more than he ever had around anyone else, and his voice was much more expressive. He had even laughed and sang! Add into that the part when Fang made sure he wasn't pushing Max too far, and what Nudge was saying...

He sighed and turned to face Nudge.

"Fine, I won't do anything to get in between them. But I will talk to Fang about it, and I will hurt him if he messes with Max." Nudge smiled, even though she knew Iggy couldn't see it.

"Good enough for me." she said.

Time Skip

Iggy stood in the kitchen, listening to the footsteps of the others as they got some dinner. He waited until Fangs almost-silent step was the only one in the room, then he spoke.

"Hey Fang, can I talk to you?" He heard the slight clink as Fang set his plate on the counter.

"Sure." he said in a near sounded massively different than how he had when he was alone with Max. Iggy cut right to the chase.

"Nudge saw you and Max kissing." There was a second of silence.

"I, uh-"

"It's ok." Iggy cut in. "I'm not mad or anything."

"Really?" Iggy just had to chuckle at the surprised sound of Fangs usually emotionless voice.

"Really. Just be careful ok? I care about her." What Fang said next made it Iggy's turn to be surprised.

"I know. I care about her too. Trust me, I won't hurt her." With that, he picked up his plate and continued into the living room. That was the most Fang had ever said to Iggy at one time.

The kid was learning.

Fangs PoV

I sat down next to Max after my little 'discussion' with Iggy. I was surprised he wasn't angry about it, though I suspected Nudge had something to do with it.

"What took you so long?" Max asked. I just shrugged and gave her a little smirk. I would tell her about it later, now wasn't the time. She looked skeptical, but I guess she decided she could get it out of me later because she shrugged back and looked away.

Someone knocked on the front door. It was fast and frantic.

Everyone exchanged confused looks. Who would be here this late?

"I'll get it." Max said, setting her plate on the floor before standing up and walking over to the door. Whoever was there still hadn't stopped knocking. The annoying noise kept on until Max opened it, revealing the rain pouring down from the sky.

I hadn't gotten a very good look before the person collapsed forward. All I saw was wildly curly brown hair. Max caught them, her eyes growing wide as saucers.

"Valencia?!"

(A/N DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN Review Please!

UNC-

Silence)


	27. Chapter 27

Maxs PoV

Valencia clung to my shoulders, her eyes blazing with fear and her hair streaming wildly about her face. She wasn't wearing any makeup, for maybe the first time in my entire life, which showed off the purpling bruises on her face.

"Help me Max." She cried, shaking me. "Help me!" All I could manage through my surprise was a weak,

"Huh?"

"Save me from him, Max, please please don't let him get me!" She was starting to cry, sobs breaking through her words at random times.

"Who?" I cried, completely bewildered.

"Jeb!" She shrieked. My eyes widened, just as hers rolled back in her head and she fell to the ground in a dead faint. I just stood there, gaping at her still body.

Iggy was the first to recover.

"Is she hurt?" he asked briskly, kneeling down next to her. Nudge scurried to his side and started reporting her various injuries. A swollen ankle, possibly sprained. Lots of bruises. Lots of cuts. Several pieces of glass imbedded in her skin. I stood there watching, my fists clenched. Seeing her stirred up the usual hatred and anger. I gritted my teeth. She had been horrible to me my whole life. Though, now that I really think about it, she wasn't nearly as bad as Jeb was, and sometimes she had a regretful look on her face when she was. Still. She made me feel like shit, and now she shows up out of nowhere, asking me to help her? Asking me to save her... from Jeb? What had Jeb done?

I shook my head and turned away from where Iggy and Nudge were patching her up. I crossed my arms tightly and tried to breathe. What made her think I would be able to save her anyway? All I do is make things worse, she knows that better than almost anyone else. She must have been delirious or something.

"Max?" I looked to my left to see Fang looking at me, a concerned glint in his eyes. "Iggy and Nudge are going to move her upstairs." he whispered.

"What room?" I murmured back. He bit his lip, and I sighed. "Just put her in mine. I'll sleep down here."

"Are you sure?" I nodded to him and looked away. Sure, she could have my room. I wasn't cruel. Fang moved over to Iggy and Nudge to give them a one-word affirmation. A moment later, Fang was helping Iggy carry the still unconscious woman up the stairs.

"Wow, Max." My jaw clenched at Angels tone.

"What, Angel?"

"Your mom. A bit... eccentric isn't she?" I spun to face her, a scowl fastened on my face.

"Listen." I muttered tightly. "I know you helped me earlier and all that, but I am really not in the mood for your mouth. So, I suggest you shut it before I do."

"Can you please stop fighting?" Nudge whimpered, looking at me with big eyes. I instantly felt bad. Still angry, but bad.

"I'm sorry Nudge." I sighed. "Really." I was. I had screwed up again. I have no idea how Fang can stand to be around me. I turned around to avoid their looks and picked my plate up off the floor, carrying it into the kitchen. I wasn't hungry anymore.

I dumped my food in the trash and plopped my plate in the sink. Then I just stood there, braced against the sink. My anger towards my mom started to morph into anger at myself. As much as I hated Jeb and Valencia, as much as I blamed them for everything, I was starting to realize it was really all me. It was really my fault, all of it. And I couldn't hate myself any more than I did right now.

"Oh just kill me." I whispered to myself, resting my elbows on the edge of the sink and putting my head in my hands.

"Over my dead body." someone breathed in my ear, arms slipping around my waist. Fang. I sighed and turned around in his grip and looked up at his face.

"What was that about?" he whispered to me. I just pushed him away slightly, forcing him to let go of me. He frowned and tilted his head to the side. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just need some space for a little while. Ok?" Fang looked concerned, but he gave me a tiny smile.

"Sure. No problem." He leaned in close to kiss my forehead. "Just don't do anything stupid." he whispered.

My lips formed a wry smile. "I won't."

He smiled again. "Oh, and by the way Max, your mom is asking for you." I grimaced, but I knew I couldn't escape it forever, so I nodded and left the room, heading upstairs.

Nudge was the only one who looked up when I entered the living room. She gave me a supportive grin, which I returned with a small thankful one.

I didn't bother knocking as I entered my room. My 'mother' was seated on the bed, facing the door. When I walked in, her face tightened a little. She opened her mouth.

"Did Jeb do that to you?" I asked, speaking before she could. She didn't look pleased, but she answered me.

"Yes." her voice was shakier than I had expected. "He's a horrible man, even more horrible than you know." I wanted to say something sarcastic, but I decided to hold my tongue for once in my life.

"How horrible?"

She looked up, and I was surprised to see tears in her eyes. Real, legitimate, tears. "Y-you don't have to say anything." I muttered, looking down at my feet and rubbing my neck. I wasn't used to this side of her. Usually she was a cold judgmental bitch who followed Jeb around like a slave.

"No, you need to know." she gulped and wrung her hands in her lap. "Ok, I'm just gonna say this. Jeb abused me." My jaw dropped. "I made sure you never noticed. If you had, Jeb would have-" she cut herself off and swallowed, then continued. "I always protected you. By pretending to not love you, by acting so horrible to you, I convinced Jeb that you were worth about as much as he thought you were, which was nothing, and therefore he wouldn't hurt you."

My fists clenched, but I forced myself to take a deep breath. She saw the look on my face.

"Oh no, Max honey I didn't mean it like that. Yes, your father thinks of you that way, but I don't, I swear. I just had to make him believe I did." I breathed again and nodded. She took that as her cue to continue. "But after you ran away... he snapped. When they caught you, he was going to do so many terrible things and I-" her voice cracked, and it took her a moment to compose herself. "I couldn't let him. Thats why I convinced him to send you away."

I inhaled fast. "It was the only way." she added.

"So thats why." I whispered, mostly to myself. "Thats why you were always judged me so harshly. Thats why you followed Jeb around so loyally. Thats why you sent me away." She nodded, hope growing in her eyes. "But it's also why you weren't as bad as Jeb."

I looked at her solemnly.

"I know you were just trying to protect me." I said slowly. "But... I can't lie. You messed me up... so badly. It wasn't just you, but you played a part." Her eyes that matched mine started to dim. "You wrecked me, mentally. You insulted any friends I managed to make and scared them off again. And sending me away." I shuddered. "You have no idea what happened in there. And I doubt anything Jeb could have done would compare to that."

I turned to leave, but she shot to her feet and snatched my hand, holding it firmly in two of hers.

"Max, please. Just give me a second chance, please, I'm begging you." I glanced back at her over my shoulder.

"I'll... I'll think about it." And with that, I pulled away from her and left the room.

By that time, the entire house was asleep. At that moment, all I wanted to do was talk to Fang. But he probably didn't want to talk to me, or hear me whine about how awful my parents are or how confused I was. He probably couldn't bear me. Very talented actor, that kid.

So I forced myself to grab a blanket from the linen closet and slunk downstairs. I curled up on the couch and pulled the blanket up over my head.

(A/N Sorry for the long wait! I had a small case of writers block, and I'm aware that this chapter sucks. Alot. So... yeah.

UNC-

Silence)


	28. Chapter 28

Third Person PoV

Fang was once again up all night, thinking about Max. It was partially worry, and partially fantasizing. Max was also up all night, thinking about Fang. Part of her insisted that he didn't really want anything to do with her, and another part argued that she was being silly, why would he waste his time pretending?

So when morning came, they were both even more exhausted. Fang was heading downstairs to hopefully talk to Max for a little while when he was stopped by none other than Valencia. She had stepped out of Maxs room just as Fang passed it.

"Fang?" He stopped and looked warily over his shoulder at the woman, who seemed small and frail now that she wasn't in her neatly pressed business clothes and high heels. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" He nodded, though a little reluctantly, and turned to face her.

"First of all, I'd like to apologize for what Jeb and I said to you the other day." she said sincerely. "It was cruel and unnecessary, and I'm sorry." Fang just watched her, so far unimpressed. She continued, undaunted. "I know that I hurt Max, badly, and I did say sorry to her. But I know that isn't enough, so what I'm wondering, is why aren't you down there making her feel better?"

Fang blinked in surprise.

"Oh don't give me that look." Valencia said with a wry half smile. "I saw the way you two were. You're together, aren't you? So why aren't you comforting her?" There was a pause. Then, Fang spoke.

"She said she wanted space." his voice was flat, as was his face. He wouldn't let her see how he felt. Only Max had that right.

"Oh, I see." Fang waited, but she didn't say anything else. He turned to leave.

"You were abused too, weren't you?" Fang snapped around and stared at her, eyes wide. How could she have known that? Valencia chuckled slightly.

"The scars were one factor." she said, as though she could read his mind. Fang bunched his black hoodie sleeves in his hands, even though he was wearing a long sleeve shirt underneath. "And I know the look, in the eyes."

Fang frowned at her. "How?" was all he said, but she understood the question.

"Jeb." One word, and that explained the entire picture. "Thats why I had to send Max away, as much as that hurt her. Because if I hadn't, Jeb would have done awful things to her. You can understand that, can't you?" her eyes, so similar to Maxs, were pleading with him.

And he could understand it. If he was in that position, he probably would have done the same thing, or at least something similar. So, he nodded.

Valencia sighed in relief. "Thank you." she breathed. Fang didn't respond, he just turned and continued downstairs.

He found Max still laying on the couch, with her blanket pulled over her head. He smiled a little to himself and pulled the blanket off of her. She instantly curled her slim frame into a ball, fastening her fists over her eyes. He could hear her grumbling crossly to herself.

"Come on Max, time to get up."

Maxs PoV

I was so tired. I had been awake most of the night, and whenever I managed to fall asleep I had a nightmare. So I was none too pleased about Fang waking me up.

"Don't talk to me, I have res sickness." I groaned, rolling over to face away from him. He chuckled. If this was a normal morning, he would have picked me up and thrown me over his shoulder to get me up. But since I had asked for space, he just started to move away.

For some unknown reason, I bolted upright and grabbed his hand before he could. He looked back at me, surprise showing in his eyes.

"Can I ask you something?" I said softly, trying not to look at his eyes.

"Sure. Whats up?"

"Um... What do you think of me?" He frowned and tilted his head to the side, obviously confused. "I mean, am I annoying? Am I whiny? Do you hate being around me?" He sat down next to me on the couch, facing me and crossing his legs. He took both of my hands in his and looked me in the eyes.

"Max, I love being around you. If I didn't I wouldn't have opened up to you. I would have treated you the way I treat everyone else in this house." I nodded and looked down, feeling relief settle in. "Whats gotten into you?" Fang asked, concern tinting his words.

I shook my head. "I think I'm just a little off because of Valencia. It's no biggie."

Fang looked skeptical, but he accepted my explanation and pulled his hands out of mine. He moved to get up, but I grabbed him and pulled him back down.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked, a little smile on my face.

Fang grinned. "You said you needed some space." My smile widened. As much as he doesn't want to admit it to anyone else, he is really sweet and caring.

"You gave me enough, I think." I said flirtatiously before kissing him. I could feel him smiling against my lips, but before we could deepen it we heard footsteps on the stairs. Pretty much everyone in the house already knows about us, but neither of us really likes PDA, so we pulled away from each other.

I watched Valencia pass us and walk into the kitchen, pointedly avoiding eye contact with me. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about her. Will I end up forgiving her? Or will I hold on to my resentment? I don't really know.

"I think you should forgive her." Fang whispered in my ear. I sent him a shocked look.

"Why?" I murmured back to him.

"Because it might help you." was all he said, but I could read between the lines. Maybe if I forgave her, I would be a little less angry and violent. Maybe I would be better.

I bit my lip and answered, "Maybe. Eventually. But not yet."

He just nodded in understanding.

(A/N sorry I haven't updated this one in a while. I've just been really busy stressing over going to highschool. Which, by the way, starts on friday. Wish me luck.

UNC-

Silence)


	29. Chapter 29

Maxs PoV

"Alright, Jason." the doctor said, looking down at Gazzy. He was standing near the door with two very large overstuffed suitcases that contained all of his possessions from this house. "Time to say goodbye." Gazzy looked at us, and I was surprised to see tears gathering in his eyes before he launched himself at Nudge. She hugged him firmly, tears streaming down her own cheeks.

"I'll miss you, Nudge." the child said in a near whisper.

"I'll miss you, too." was all she said before gently pushing him off and wiping her cheeks. The next person he hugged was Iggy, his arms going around Iggys waist.

"Thanks." he mumbled into Iggy's shirt. "For everything."

Iggy smiled sadly. "No problem, kiddo." he answered, ruffling his light hair. Then, surprising me again, he hugged Angel. And Angel actually hugged him back! They didn't say anything, just stood there for a second before pulling away. Angel looked in the opposite direction.

I felt Gazzy's small arms surround me, and I knelt down to hug him properly.

"Bye Max. Be good." he muttered to me, which made me smile ever so slightly.

"I will if you will." I responded. He pulled back and grinned at me before moving on. This time he shocked everyone by hugging Fang. Fang didn't really know how to respond, so he just stood there while Gazzy hugged him. Gazzy looked up at him, then tugged on his sleeve until he bent down to his level. Gazzy whispered something in his ear, and a strange emotion popped up in his eyes. Before Fang could think of a good response, Gazzy had stepped back to the doctors. Actually, I think I'll stop calling them that. They don't heal us the way doctors are meant to. I think I'll call them whitecoats, since they never take the darn things off. I bet they sleep in them.

I digress. Back to the heartrending scene in front of us.

The whitecoat opened the door and started to pull Gazzy out while another took his bags. At the last second, Gazzy turned back and gave a sad little wave before the door shut behind him.

Time Skip

Bring. Bring. Bring. Br- Iggy answered the phone, cutting off the annoying automatic ringtone.

"Hello?" I looked up from where I was watching TV with Nudge. Valencia and Angel were upstairs, and Fang was in the dining room, eating something. Even though it had been almost three weeks since Gazzy left, the house still felt lonely and echoing without his chatter to drown out the silence.

Having Valencia around was still weird, adding even more poison into the atmosphere of the house. She and I were still not on great terms, but I was getting better. At least, I could stand having a 5 minute civil conversation with her without feeling like I had to go Hulk Smash on a nearby wall, which was promising.

Iggy shifted nervously as he listened to the person on the other end of the line. That was bad. Unless the whitecoats were involved, Iggy was almost never nervous.

"Uh huh. I understand. Ok, bye." Iggy hung up.

"Who was it Iggy?" Nudge asked, voicing my question with big round eyes.

"The whitecoats are coming a day early." Iggy responded. A few days after I had come up with the term, I had told the others about it, and they had started using it too.

Iggy was rubbing his forehead. He looked so tired. I felt a pang, watching him. He deserved to go home as much as Gazzy. He was the best blind person I had ever heard of.

"Did they say why?" I asked him.

"No, only that it was important." Instantly, a rock formed in my gut. The last time they had done this, it was a disaster. What could they possibly want now? "Oh, and that it had something to do with you, Max."

Oh, God. Were they gonna send me back? Maybe Jeb had told them something, or my pervy whitecoat had come up with some lie. Oh God oh God oh God. They couldn't send me back! It was hell! They had hurt everyone so badly there. I would rather die than go back there.

While this rant was happening inside my head, my hands had curled into determined fists.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see." I said. My voice was calm, but I was not. I was burning.

If they try to send me back, I might just have to raise hell.

Time Skip Again

Later that night, it was just me and Fang up, watching TV together silently. His arm was slung over my shoulder, and my head rested on his chest. Usually by now I would have been out cold, but I couldn't sleep tonight.

"I know you're scared they're gonna send you back." he said out of blue, making me tense up. "And trust me, I am too. But the way you talk about it... what did they do to you there?"

There was a pause as I debated whether or not to tell him. What happened there was horrible, something even the sickest minds wouldn't want to imagine. Why would he want to know?

"It's eating you alive, Max." he murmured into my ear, responding to my thoughts as though he could read them. He was right. It eats at me like a monster.

"Are you sure you want to know?" I asked, suppressing a shudder as an ice cold feeling ran down my spine. He shifted so that he cradled me in his lap.

"I'm sure." Fang whispered, making a different kind of shiver run through me.

I hesitated again, but Fangs gentle prodding opened me up after a few minutes.

"Well they... to put it simply, they experimented on us." Fangs eyes widened, and his grip tightened a little, but he didn't interrupt. "They locked us in dog crates. Basically... it was torture. They would take the mental patients and inject them with various drugs to see how we reacted and how it affected us. They would hook us up to sensors and interrogate us about so many personal things, to measure our brain waves or something. They'd wire us up and shock us within an inch of our lives." My eyes shut, unpleasant memories scrolling past like a demented movie screen.

"It was so white, so sterile. But it wasn't silent. You could hear screams, all the time. I was kept in the girls wing, just cages all in neat rows, full of girls as young as 2 to as old at 30. That was arguably the worst place in the whole thing. The whitecoats they hired were like mine: perves. So every night, we could hear..." I gulped, and my voice dropped to a whisper. "If you were lucky, after a year or two, they would either kill you or let you go. The only problem is, if they let you go, they always watch you, forever. Most would be too afraid to say anything." I started to tremble, and Fang held me closer. I twisted my hands into his shirt and tried to stop shaking. "And if they had, it isn't like anyone would believe them. If I wasn't so angry about how they treated us, I would have fallen apart."

"I doubt it." Fang murmured. "You are far too strong for that."

I just shrugged helplessly.

"So how much of your anger was from everything else, and how much was from that?" he asked.

"I'd say half of it was from that. The other half is all the others combined." Despite my resolve not to, tears started down my face. I couldn't help it. The memories speeding through me were something I never wanted to relive again, but I always did, in my nightmares. They make me want to scream and cry and retch and just curl up into a pathetic little ball and never move again.

"Shhh." Fang hushed. "Shhhh baby. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. I shouldn't have asked."

I didn't say anything, I just curled up even more and pressed as close to him as I could, trying to stop crying and shaking. Fang held me tightly, just stroking my hair and letting me cry into his shoulder, periodically making small comforting sounds.

After what felt like hours, I fell asleep in his arm.

(A/N Well, today was my first official day of high school, and it went better than I expected. Sorry for the long wait, but i've been a bit busy stressing about the aforementioned first day of highschool. So, enjoy!

UNC-

Silence)


	30. Chapter 30

Fangs PoV

I just sat there with the TV on for the next few hours, just holding sleeping Max and thinking. No wonder she was so terrified, that place must have been horrible. And I hated myself for making her cry like that. I shouldn't have pried. With a sigh, I rested my head on top of Maxs and closed my eyes. In my mind, I remembered how my hospital had been. Living hell for sure, but nowhere close to Maxs. I understood now why she was so terrified of those whitecoats, and why she shivered every time someone mentioned it. Why she was so scared of being sent back.

The thought scared me, too. I buried my face into Maxs hair and clenched my jaw.

Only over my dead body were they sending her back there.

Maxs PoV

When I woke up the next morning, I was tucked into bed (Valencia had moved into Gazzy's room). I felt oddly hot and looked down. I was wearing a familiar black hoodie that I hadn't been wearing before. It was Fangs, the one he always wore if not his leather jacket or a long sleeved shirt. I smiled to myself and pulled the hood up over my hair. It made me feel safe.

Then I remembered. My smile dropped, and I curled up into my covers, curling my fists into the long hoodie sleeves. The doctors were coming today, probably to send me back. I squeezed my eyes shut and prepared to steel myself, prepared to let my anger take over again. In there, if you're angry, you can handle anything and take down anyone. Thats what I needed.

Someone knocked briefly on my door, then it opened and Fangs almost silent steps crossed to my bed.

"Max, you need to get up." he whispered into my ear, sending warm tingles down my spine.

"No." I mumbled pathetically. "Maybe if I don't acknowledge it, the day won't happen."

"Only in a perfect world." he answered, then I felt his arms surround me and he lifted me gently out of the bed. I nestled my head into his shoulder, keeping my eyes shut. "I'm taking you to the kitchen." he breathed into my ear. "You should eat something before they get here."

Something in his voice made me open my eyes and look him in his. There it was. He was as scared as I was, maybe more.

"It's gonna be ok." I whispered, nuzzling my face into his neck.

"Oh God Max." he buried his nose into my hair. "You shouldn't be the one saying that. I should be the one saying it to you." I shook my head, and we stood there before another second before he turned and walked out of the room, carrying me like a child. He carried me all the way into the kitchen and set me on the counter. Fang walked over to the pantry and pulled out the bag of bagels, then smeared cream cheese over one of the two he had taken. He handed me the plain one, knowing how I hated cream cheese. I smiled gratefully at him and took a bite.

I was about halfway through my bagel when the doorbell rang. I froze mid chew, and Fang grabbed for my hand. I heard thundering footsteps, and within two seconds, the entire household was assembled. Including…

"Valencia!" I hissed. "Go back upstairs! They can't know you're here!" Her face lit up as she remembered, then she rushed back upstairs to Gazzy's old room, which she was now staying in. The rest of us slowly shuffled into the living room. I sat on the couch, Fang on one side, Nudge on the other. Angel sat on the other couch while Iggy got the door. As soon as he opened it, three people poured in. My perverted whitecoat, whose presence still made me shiver, Angels whitecoat, a pretty blonde, and a man, dressed in plain clothes, whom I had never seen before.

I got to my feet, putting my shoulders back.

"Good morning Max." My whitecoat greeted.

"What did you want to tell me?" I wasn't going to play his game. I wanted to know if I was going back or not.

"Fine. Maximum, we've decided you've made enough progress to leave this house." My eyes widened. "However, since your parents have disowned you," I winced, "We've had to take another course of action. Mr. Tyler," he gestured to the strange man, "has agreed to take you into his home as his foster child until you can be properly adopted."

My jaw dropped. I don't know why. I should have been happy. Instead, a bad feeling settled into my gut. In that moment, I realized this was my home now. I had spent my entire time here pining for a home at last, and now I knew that it was right here, with Iggy and Nudge and Fang, hell even with Angel.

I didn't want to leave.

"Congrats." Iggy murmured in my ear.

I didn't want to leave.

Angel huffed and crossed her arms.

I didn't want to leave.

"No." I breathed. Mr. Tyler frowned at me.

"What?" he asked. His blue eyes had narrowed. He had light ginger hair and a rugged face.

"I said no." I said in a stronger voice, feeling anger start to seep in. "I don't want to leave. This is my home!"

"Would you prefer being sent back to your hospital?" the whitecoat snarled, making my face go pale.

"No, but-"

"Then you will go with Mr. Tyler. People who have completed their treatment must move on so that others may live here."

My mouth opened to protest, but Fang laid one hand on the back of my waist and spoke up for the first time.

"When? When is she leaving?"

His head was bowed, letting his hair cover his pain-filled eyes. I was feeling a little confused- I wanted to comfort him, and I wanted to punch the whitecoats.

"Two weeks." Fang grimaced, and he grabbed my hand, not caring about the whitecoats.

Two weeks. Two weeks, and I'll be gone. Ripped from my home. Away from Fang.

Oh, God.

Time Skip

Fangs PoV

The doctors left soon after, tired of Maxs screaming. Then she locked herself in her room and nearly ripped her punching back to shreds. I paced my bedroom anxiously. I couldn't believe it. Max would be gone in two weeks. Max will be gone in two weeks. _Max will be gone in two weeks._

I faceplanted into my bed and screamed into a pillow. Thats right, I was that frustrated and angry. And anxious.

I know it sounds pathetic. But I don't know what I was going to do once she was gone. I would fall apart. She was the only one I could talk to, the only one who cracked open my shell. And she's going to be gone in two weeks, and I'll probably never see her again.

Just when I was starting to be happy again, it gets torn away.

Again.

(A/N OMG I didn't update for over a week! NExt time I do that, feel free to smack me. Sorry, I underestimated how busy I would be with school! Sorry again.

UNC-

Silence)


	31. Chapter 31

Fangs PoV

As soon as the others were in bed, Max and I headed to the roof. She straddled me, her arms wrapped around neck, her legs around my waist. I pressed my face into her neck. Neither one of us spoke.

"Fang?" she whispered after a few moments.

"Yeah Max?" I wanted to say her name as many times as possible, so that I would never forget how it sounds.

"I don't want to leave." She pulled away from my shoulder and looked at me in the eyes, her brown irises swirling with sorrow. I hated how sad she looked.

"I don't want you to either. But there isn't anything we can do."

She sighed forlornly and lay her head down on my chest.

"Max?" I asked a few minutes.

"Yeah?" she sounded so, so tired.

"Don't… don't forget me." She looked at me in surprise. "I just- I know that once you leave, I'll probably never see you again." She opened her mouth, but I didn't let her speak. "And I just don't want you to forget me."

"I won't. I won't, I promise."

Time Skip

The days went far too quickly. Max and I started sleeping in the same bed every night, just to be that much closer to each other. With the knowledge that soon she would be gone, neither one of us could get to sleep without the other. Soon it just evolved into a routine.

We would spend most of the day together, in her room, just enjoying each others company. Though alot of the time that would morph into heated make out sessions. It was like I was addicted to her, and to the happiness she brought me. I needed to feel it now, because I'm positive that all of my happiness will leave with her.

Much too quickly, it was the night before.

I sat on Maxs bed, watching her fold her clothing into a duffel bag. She didn't have much, just one bag full of clothes and her Ipod and headphones. My heart felt like it was slowly splitting into a million small pieces, and I could barely stand it, watching Max sadly packing.

She placed her last t-shirt on top, then slowly zipped it shut. Her sad eyes turned up to me, and I couldn't bear it. A small strangled sound escaped my throat, and I had to look away.

"Oh, Fang." Max said quietly, walking over and placing a hand on my shoulder. I reached up and took it without looking at her. I couldn't. She was going to leave, tomorrow morning, and I was going to have my heart torn to shreds the second she steps out the door. How could I still look her in the eye, knowing that?

I felt the bed sink as she sat behind me, then her arms wrapped around my neck from behind. My hands lightly surrounded her wrists as she rested her head against my back.

"I'll see you again." she whispered in my ear. "The next time they have a visiting day, I'll be right here."

I smiled a little. She and I both knew how unlikely that was, but at least she tried.

"I don't know what I'll do without you." I finally admitted, closing my eyes.

"Me neither." she murmured. "Do you have a cell phone?"

"No." I muttered. I had never owned a cell in my entire life. No surprise there. She sighed and her muscles relaxed against me, her fingers starting to make circles on my shoulders.

Quickly, I twisted around and grabbed her around the waist, holding her as tightly as I dared. Her arms were like a vise around my neck.

"I can't." I breathed into her shoulder, my voice cracking a little. "I can't let you go." I peppered fast kisses over her shoulder, feeling pain rising in my chest. Her fingers tangled into my hair, which she tugged on. I kissed harder, starting across her collarbone, trying desperately to make the pain go away.

"Make it stop hurting." I mumbled, then hoped she hadn't heard.

Apparently she did.

She grasped my hair tighter and pulled my mouth up to hers. I responded, moving my lips with hers. Slowly, everything else (including the pain) dissipated into nothing. Everything, my entire world, was Max.

I felt her hands move to my shoulders, slowly pushing me back onto her bed. Our heads angled to the sides as I moved my hands to her waist. It was fast and desperate and needy. I put my hands on the back of her neck and pressed her closer. A slight sigh escaped her lips, and she gripped the hem of my long sleeve shirt. In one swift movement, she pulled the shirt off, breaking the kiss for only a moment. Her legs slipped down so that she was straddling me, her hands on my chest.

Max. The girl I had known for three months, that cracked open my shell and made me better. The girl that meant so much to me, who healed my cuts and kissed my scars. She was being taken from me, and I couldn't do a thing about it.

I tried to shut out my painful thoughts and tried to lose myself in Max again. But she pulled away, a strangled sob forcing it's way up her throat. Her eyes widened, and her hand slammed over her mouth. She so obviously didn't want to cry. But all the same her shoulders started to shake and her eyes got shiny.

I hushed her and held her to my shoulder. She tucked her head into the crook of my neck and let herself cry.

I stroked her hair and murmured comforting words to her, even though they sounded choked. As much as I tried to convince myself that this would be better for her, not having the whitecoats breathing down her neck constantly, I still selfishly wished that she wasn't going away.

A few minutes later, she pulled back and pulled on my hands urgently. I let her peel my arms away from her, and she held them in front of me, so that I could see all the scars.

"Promise me." she said. "Promise me that you won't hurt yourself again."

I looked at my arms, then at Max. Her eyes were wide, pleading with me to promise her. But I couldn't lie to those brown eyes.

"I'm sorry Max. Thats the one thing I can't promise you."

(A/N A very angsty filler chapter. Aren't those just the best?Reviews

UNC-

Silence)


	32. Chapter 32

Maxs PoV

The next day, I was awakened by the doorbell. I immediately closed my eyes, pulling the blanket up farther and clinging to Fangs side. He held me just as tightly, ducking us under the covers. Both of our bodies were rigid, already preparing for pulling ourselves out of the bed. I wrapped my arms securely around Fangs waist, resting my head on his chest.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Max, Fang, the whitecoats are here." Iggy murmured through the door, sadness obvious in his voice. I flinched, and Fangs grip tightened. "I'll try to stall them for as long as I can."

"Thank you." I called to him.

"No problem Max." I heard his footsteps retreat back down the hall.

At the same moment, Fang and I opened our eyes and looked at each other. It didn't take long for mine to cloud with tears. Fangs were full of pain, so much pain. A tear slipped down my cheek, and Fang kissed it away.

Without speaking, we both got up. I was already in jeans and a t-shirt, so I just pulled on my shoes and pulled my hair back into a ponytail. Fang put his shirt back on and walked over to me. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and I placed mine around his neck. He rested his forehead against mine, keeping his eyes closed and his hair falling over his face.

"I'm gonna miss you." I whispered.

"Don't." he responded urgently in a pained voice. "Don't say that. It sounds like I'll never see you again."

I knew what he was doing. He knew he probably wouldn't see me again, but he was trying to fool himself into thinking that he might, so that maybe it wouldn't hurt so badly. I decided to let it go.

"Ok." I said, giving him a little broken smile. He tried to return it, but it faltered and died.

Fang turned away from me for a second and picked up the black hoodie that I hadn't returned to him. He turned back to me and wrapped it over my shoulders, pulling my arms through the sleeves. He zipped it all the way up. It was too big, and the sleeves fell over my hands. I bunched them into my hands and smiled up at him slightly.

He kissed my forehead, just as someone knocked on the door again.

"They're insisting you guys come down now. I can't convince them to let you have any more time." Iggy said through the door. I gulped.

"Ok." I replied. I reluctantly pulled away from Fang and picked up my duffel bag. I took Fangs hand and started leading him out of the room and trudging heavily down the stairs. At the landing, Fang stopped and turned me to face him.

"One last kiss." he breathed, then pressed his lips to mine. I tilted my head to the side and wrapped my arms around his neck. After a few seconds we pulled away and slowly continued down the stairs. I could feel my heart starting it's inevitable break.

In the living room, Iggy, Nudge, and Angel were waiting for us, as well as my whitecoat and Mr. Tyler. Mr. Tyler didn't look like he was in a good mood.

"Say your goodbyes." the whitecoat said sternly. Despite this heartbreak, I was a little happy I wouldn't be seeing him anymore.

I set my duffel on the floor and walked slowly over to Iggy. He pulled me into a light hug. I hugged him back.

"Thanks Iggy. For taking care of me." I told him quietly.

"No problem Max."

I pulled away and gave him a small smile before moving on. I knelt down and gathered Nudge into my arms, stroking her out of control curls.

"Get better, ok?" I whispered in her ear. I felt her nod against my shoulder, then she yanked away from me and turned away, planting her fists over her eyes to try and hold in her tears. I hated seeing Nudge cry.

I looked away and moved on to Angel. I didn't hug her, but I held out my hand to her, and she shook it.

"Thanks for helping me that time." I told her with as bright a smile as I could manage. She smiled and nodded to me, and we parted ways.

I ran over to Fang, who instantly enveloped me in his arms and held me close to him.

"Don't say goodbye." He whispered to me. "Don't you dare say goodbye."

We stayed for a few more seconds, until the whitecoat cleared his throat. I forced myself away from Fang and gave him a shaky smile, my eyes blurry.

"See ya later." I murmured, giving his hand one last squeeze. His mouth turned up slightly at the edges.

"See you." was all he said.

I slowly pulled my hand from his and picked up my back, dragging myself towards the door. Iggy and Fang followed, Angel not caring and Nudge still struggling with her tears. Mr. Tyler and the whitecoat ushered me out the door. I made it halfway down the driveway towards the white car before I snapped. I dropped my bag, spun around, ran back up the driveway, and threw myself at Fang, smashing my mouth on his.

For a moment he was startled, then he responded desperately, angling his head this way and that. I could stay here forever. But… I have to leave.

"Goodbye." I whispered to him, tears starting down my cheeks. Before I could convince myself to delay any longer, I yanked away from him and ran all the way back down to the car, scooping my bag up on the way. I threw myself into the back seat and buried my face in my sleeve covered hands, desperately trying to hold in my tears. A few seconds later, I heard Mr. Tyler get in, grumbling. He started the car and drove away as I raised my head and wiped my cheeks.

I didn't dare look back.

(A/N THIS IS NOT THE LAST CHAPTER! I have alot more planned out. But I'm not sure if I should include it as part of this story, or as a sequel. Even if I do make a sequel, there will still be a couple more chapters in this one first. So tell me which one I should do!

UNC-

Silence)


	33. Chapter 33

Maxs PoV

We drove for what seemed like hours. I had pulled my legs up to my chest and the hood up over my head, tucking my head onto my knees. It smelled like Fang, and if I closed my eyes, I could imagine that he was here sitting next to me, holding me close.

Finally, we pulled up in front of a house. I looked up through the window at it, and my nose crinkled. It looked small, and run down. It's light blue paint was peeling, and some of the wood planks were falling off. The windows were filthy, and most were either cracked or broken. The lawn was dead and full of weeds. What person in their right mind would send a foster kid to live here?

"Come on." Tyler muttered, switching off the engine and climbing out of the car. I followed slowly, my bag loose in my hand. He lead me up the cracked walkway to the battered door. He unlocked it with a rusty key, but he had to slam his shoulder against it to get it open. I stepped inside, catching a glimpse of him as he went into the living room.

The inside was worse than the outside. The carpet was dirty and stained, as was the falling apart furniture. The wallpaper was peeling just like the paint, and there were numerous beer bottles all over. There wasn't a single clean spot in sight.

"You're room is upstairs, first door on the right." Tyler yelled from the kitchen. "Now get!"

I rolled my eyes at him and trudged up the rickety staircase. When I reached the second floor, I found it was in even worse condition than the downstairs. The carpet was unraveling, there were holes in the walls. The floors were littered with bottles, cigarette butts, and even (I noticed with disgust) used needles. I shook my head and walked into the first bedroom on the right. It was tiny, with a narrow bed metal bed in the corner that was bent in the middle. The carpet was a ratty brown with several stains and holes in it. Around the corners of the room, I saw more needles, a few bottles, condom wrappers, and a lighter. Ugh.

I closed the weak wooden door and studied the bed. The sheets were white, and I could see the numerous stains on it that I really did not want to know about. Disgusted, I yanked them off the mattress and dumped them in the corner, covering up several needles. Wouldn't want to accidentally step on one of those.

I set my duffel on the now bare mattress and plopped down next to it. I stretched my legs out the best I could on the bent bed. I was about to close my eyes, maybe sleeping would help me feel less heartbreaky, but I was interrupted.

"Max!" Tyler yelled from downstairs. "Get down here and get me a beer!"

"Not your housekeeper!" I called back in a fake british accent, feeling annoyed. I heard his stomping footsteps coming up the stairs, then my door flew open with a loud bang.

"I said." He growled, his face red. "Get downstairs and get me a beer, bitch."

Just like that, my temper sparked. "Bitch is another word for a dog, dogs bark, bark is on trees, trees are a part of nature, and nature is beautiful, so thanks for the compliment." I recited in my best snarky tone. "And you have the energy to march all the way up here to yell at me, but not enough to get your lazy ass into the kitchen and get your own beer? Being a bit hypocritical, aren't we?"

Throughout my little speech, his face had gotten redder and redder. Now it verged on purple. He took a threatening step forward, and I sat up. He was within arms reach of me now.

"What did you just say to me?" he spat, fists clenching.

"You heard me." I snarled back. "Or maybe you didn't. Maybe you're too stupid to-"

_Smack!_

My head snapped around, and I gasped in surprise and pain, raising a hand to my flaming cheek.

"Did- did you just slap me?" I asked, incredulous.

"Yes. Or were you too stupid to comprehend that?" he replied scathingly. I just sat there, breathing hard, my hand on my cheek, glaring at him with all my might, repressing my urge to punch him in the face.

"Now get your fat ass up and get me a beer!" He yelled, grabbing my arm in a grip hard enough to make me wince. He yanked me to my feet and shoved me towards the door. I slunk towards the stairs, but apparently I wasn't moving fast enough. He grabbed my hair, and with one push, sent me tumbling down the stairs. My shoulder and my hip got the worst of it, and would be hella bruised later, like my cheek would. I hit the floor with a sharp thump and a quiet cry.

"GET UP!" Tyler screamed, grabbing my hair again and pulling my to my feet. My hands flew up to his, trying to untangle his fingers from my tangled hair, but to no avail. He just dragged me by the hair into the kitchen. He dropped me onto the cracked linoleum and kicked me, hard, in the ribs. I shouted at the pain and curled in on myself.

"Get. Up." he grunted, kicking me with each word. I cried at the blows, but forced myself to get up and stumble towards the fridge. I pulled open the door and grabbed a beer. He snatched it from my hand, then shoved me down again.

"Go back upstairs." He snarled. I didn't move, I just lay there, panting, tears brimming from the pain in my gut, shoulder, hip, and face.

He didn't say anything, just growling and snatching my arm. His grip iron tight, he pulled me all the way back up the stairs. I stumbled, trying to keep my body from hitting the steps. I didn't exactly succeed.

He dragged me down the hall and threw me into my bedroom, slamming the door behind him. I heard the lock click.

Third Person PoV

Once the car was out of sight, Fang whirled around and sprinted to his room, slamming the door and locking it. He huddled in his room, not planning on coming out. The others in the house let him go, knowing how much he must be hurting.

There was a dull pain in his chest that refused to leave. He clutched a pillow to his chest. He didn't care how childish or pitiful or pathetic it was, he just hurt too much.

He hoped Max was happy. He hoped Mr. Tyler would be kind to her. He hoped he would give her the home she deserved.

Even if he never saw Max again, he hoped she could at least be happy without him.

(A/N Oh, I am a cruel person. Again, not the last chapter.

UNC-

Silence)


	34. Chapter 34

Fangs PoV

"Fang, dinner."

"Not hungry."

I heard Iggy sigh, but he didn't argue. I waited until Iggy's footsteps faded down the stairwell, then I left my room. I headed for the window at the end of the hall, climbing out of it and up the trellis. I settled down on the roof, leaning back to stare at the stars. It was a little cold, but I didn't really care. I remembered when I followed Max up here. 'Don't sneak up on me.' she said. 'You'll make me fall off the roof.'

I smiled sadly at the memory. God I missed her. Being up here made me feel a little better though, as sad as it made me. Thinking that made me remember what Gazzy told me, right before he left.

"It'll get better. I promise."

But it hadn't. It had only gotten worse.

Time Skip

I stayed up there for a few more hours, remembering, then I decided to go back inside. To my surprise, there was a sketchbook and several different colored pens and pencils sitting on my bed. On top of the drawing supplies was a note. I picked it up and began reading the neat handwriting.

_Dear Fang-_

_I saw what you drew on Max's arm that one time, so I thought this stuff might cheer you up a little._

_Hope I didn't intrude._

_-Nudge_

I couldn't help the small smile that crept onto my face. Nudge really was a sweet kid. I had to thank her somehow, and I knew that my normal muttering wouldn't cut it. Then I got it.

I sat down cross-legged on my bed and opened up the sketchbook. It was practically brand new! First, I sketched the outline of it with pencil, then went over it with a dark purple pen. Then I shaded it in with light purple pencil.

About an hour after coming back inside, I ended up with the words 'Thank You' scrawled in purple across the page in gothic script. I think that should do.

Cautiously, I edged my door open, paper in hand. The house was dark and silent, it was almost ten. I walked silently downstairs and down the hallway to Nudges room. I paused in front of the door, wondering if I should knock or something, but if I did I would have to talk to her.

I just crouched down and slipped the paper underneath her door before quickly retreating to my bedroom.

I spent the rest of the night sketching, and the next morning, Nudge smiled at me.

Maxs PoV

That bastard kept me locked in the Entire. Night. Thankfully my room had an attached bathroom.

Anyway, around 5:30 the next morning, he slammed the door open, making me jump awake.

"Get up brat, you're going to school." he snapped irritably. I raised a hand to block the light from the hallway that was streaming into my eyes and scrunched up my face in displeasure.

"School?" I muttered almost incoherently, still out of it.

"Yes, school." he said. I'm pretty sure he rolled his eyes too. "Your bus stop is just down the street and the bus gets there at 6:45. School starts at 7:20. Don't be late." With that, he smashed the door shut again.

I groaned and fumbled for a light switch, finally finding one but almost stepping on a broken bottle in the process. Damn this place needed a home makeover.

With massive yawns that nearly split my jaw, I pulled on a random pair of jeans and a tee-shirt, then I tied on my sneakers and put on Fangs hoodie, zipping it all the way up and flipping up the hood. I stuck my Ipod and my headphones in my pocket, then slipped out the door and shuffled down the stairs.

Just in time to catch the fully stocked backpack that was thrown at my head.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed. Tyler just smirked at me. I studied the backpack. It was simple, black, and heavy as all hell.

"I'm surprised you were sober enough to get all this stuff." I sneered at him, a mean glint in my eye.

"I wasn't. Your doctor oh-so-lovingly donated it for you. Now, scram. You don't get any breakfast for being a smartass."

I just shrugged. "Breakfast would probably be half rotten poptarts anyway." I muttered to myself, just managing to get out the door ahead of his roar of rage.

I could already see kids congregating at the bus stop, so with a sigh, I stuck my earbuds in and forced myself to head over to them.

I stood on the edge of the group, keeping my eyes on the ground. It was only about 6:30 when I left, so I had to wait for fifteen minutes. Plus I was starving. I didn't have any money for lunch, and I doubt Tyler was nice enough to put any food in the backpack for me.

Looks like I'll just have to wait until after school. Joy.

"Hey."

Reluctantly, I moved my gaze upwards to look at the person who had spoken. A boy my height, with Caribbean blue eyes and golden hair. He was in light blue jeans and a simple green shirt with a white hoodie.

I nodded to him and looked down again.

"Whats your name?" Apparently he didn't get that I didn't want to talk to him, but I sighed and answered anyway.

"Max." I grumbled. Something flickered in his eyes, but I couldn't decipher what.

"Dylan." he said, way too cheerfully for 6:30, holding out his hand. I forced myself to shake it lightly once, then I dropped it like a hot potato. He didn't seem to notice, and if he did, he didn't react.

I thought of Fang, and how his friend Dylan had showed up the day he relapsed. Remembering his dead looking black eyes and the red lining his wrists made me sad.

"So, Max." he said, striving for casual. "You got a boyfriend?"

Ick. Douchebag alert.

"Just broke up with mine." I muttered. I didn't want to talk to Dylan. I didn't want to think about Fang. Seems I can have one or the other.

"Great. You, me, Friday, dinner?" My eyes snapped up to Dylans face, a scowl on my lips. I was just waiting for a target, and he had just supplied me with one. Lucky him.

"First off, I just met you 2 minutes ago." I hissed. "Second off, I just broke up with my last boyfriend yesterday, and I have no wish for a relationship right now. And third off, you're a douche."

Just as I finished this speech, the yellow tin can of death screeched up to the stop. I gave Dylan one last glare, then hopped up the steps, leaving him standing there with a silly dumbstruck expression on his movie-star face.

(A/N In case you're wondering, yes, that is the time I have to catch my bus in real life. So to all of you who think high school starts at 9 or something, you are DEAD wrong. It sucks majorly.

UNC-

Silence)


	35. Chapter 35

Maxs PoV

I sat out the long bus ride in a seat in the middle by myself. I kept my hood up and my earbuds in and my eyes glued to the window. I could feel the curious glances being thrown in my direction, but I was too tired to really notice. I just leaned against the window and watched the houses flash by me.

Finally, we reached the school. I contemplated hiding on the bus, but I forced myself to get off and somehow found my way to the main office. I'm not sure how, I was still half asleep and stumbling like a zombie.

The woman sitting at the desk didn't give me a second glance, just asked my name and handing me my schedule before waving me off. Great, now I just had to find my classes. I glanced around the main hallway, looking for signs or something, but found nothing. I huffed in annoyance.

"Hey." I looked up to see a boy standing in front of me. Wow, this was going much the same way my meeting with Dylan had. I nodded to him.

"I'm Sam. What's your name?"

I frowned, but murmured, "Max." Wow, what are the odds that I meet a Sam and a Dylan on my first day?

Just like Dylans, Sams eyes flicked a little.

"You're new, right?" he asked.

"Obviously." I said snarkily. I was way too tired for this.

"Do you want help? I can show you where the classrooms are and stuff."

My first instinct was to say no, but then I thought. If I was going to be honest with myself, I was completely lost and had no idea what the fuck I was doing. Therefore, accepting Sams offer is my smartest choice.

So I said sure.

Just as someone else ran up to us.

Dylan.

"Hey, Sam!" he said when he reached us. Sam greeted him, and they did a little fist bump thing. So Sam and Dylan are friends… this is just getting weird.

"Dylan, this is Max. I'm going to be helping her find her way around school." Sam introduced, gesturing to me.

"Oh, we've met." Dylan said with a smirk, as though he had forgotten the fact that I had very clearly rejected him. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, hello again. And how many girls did you harass on your way here?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow. His smirk dropped into a scowl, which made me chuckle a little. Sam noticed the tension in the air and cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Right then. Max, what's your first class?" he asked me. I just handed him my schedule. He looked it over, then nodded and handed it back.

"Follow me."

As we walked down the hallways, he started up a conversation.

"So Max, where did you move from?"

"Just a little while away." I didn't really want to talk to him.

"Have any friends?" That question sparked an idea in my mind.

"Yeah. I had a boyfriend." Sam looked at me, seeming to sense my sudden change in mood. "He had black hair and really dark eyes." I continued, watching Sams face. His eyes were frantic.

"What was his name?" he asked me, striving for casual but failing.

"He preferred to go by a nick name. Fang." As soon as I said his name, Sams face changed. He stopped walking and backed me up against a wall.

"You were the Max he mentioned when we visited him." he said, more like a statement than a question.

"Yeah. And you were the two dickheads that made him relapse." I spat back at him, making him flinch slightly.

"Look, I'm sorry for what we did to him. But he was the target for so long that if you even mentioned his name in a friendly way you plummet down the social ladder. And that still holds, so if you want to survive here, never mention him again." He glanced around, as if to make sure no one had heard him, then grabbed my wrist and muttered, "Come on." and started pulling me towards my first class.

I'm starting to understand why Fang hated this place so much.

Fangs PoV

The second day Max was gone, it was starting to sink in. I first noticed it when I woke up around 7. There was no music coming from the floor below mine. The house was completely silent. It felt lonely.

I kept noticing it throughout the day. She wasn't there to convince me to eat, or to make me dance around with her in her room, or make me talk and smile. This was a new feeling, one that I hadn't felt before, but hated nonetheless.

The feeling of losing your best friend.

I distracted myself by drawing, the way I had in the past. At first I tried to focus on happier things, drawing pictures of Max, Iggy, Nudge, and Gazzy. Then I drew the house, my room, Maxs room, and the tree in the back yard. I drew what the night sky looked liked from the roof. By then it was about 6 p.m, and I was starving, but I didn't want to eat anything. The thought of food made me feel sick.

So I kept drawing. I drew Max a few more times, in different circumstances. I drew her happy and carefree, I drew her sad, I drew her angry. I drew the way she looked at me after I cut.

After I drew the last one, I knew I should eat something, but instead I left my sketchbook open across my bed and just fell backwards onto it and fell asleep.


	36. Chapter 36

Maxs PoV

I followed Sam dutifully throughout the day, then he was kind enough to let me sit with him and Dylan at lunch. They sat alone, so I guess they still hadn't recovered from the social fallout being friends with Fang had caused. Which reminds me.

"Hey,Sam?" I said, keeping my voice casual but quiet.

"Yeah?"

"What did Fang do to make everyone hate him so much?" I mean, they can't just hate someone for no reason. So he must have done something, right?

He tensed up, and he and Dylan glanced around before saying anything, as though to make sure no one had heard me. Gosh, paranoid much?

Seeming satisfied that no one was eavesdropping, Sam leaned forward and began speaking in a hushed voice.

"Well, they didn't really_ hate_ him. He was just such a good target, you know? For the first few weeks of school, he was kind of invisible. But I guess someone saw his scars or something because one day they all just started calling him emo and beating up on him." I winced, and he shot me a sympathetic look before continuing his explanation.

"The problem was he never fought back. He never said a thing back at them or tried to defend himself. He just took it. He didn't stop them, so they didn't stop. It kept going on until… well, until he left." He said the last part awkwardly, and Dylan shifted, looking uncomfortable.

I nodded slowly in understanding. I learned that lesson well in juvy. You can't be a target. And if someone tries to target you, you make sure that it's the last time.

Fang wasn't like that.

"Hey, losers! Sitting with the new girl?" said a snotty voice behind me. I turned to see…

A really tall girl in designer jeans, a flowy white blouse, light brown eyes, and pin straight blonde hair that was pulled back from her face with a few bobby pins.

The sad part is, all of you expected me to say a red headed whore, didn't you? ^-^

"Hey Tiffany." Dylan said, adding what I was learning to recognize as his flirtatious grin. He didn't seem to mind the 'loser' title, though I could tell that deep down he was wounded.

Sam just gave a sullen hi.

Tiffany turned her eyes on me, scrutinizing every slobby detail. I sat up straight and looked her straight in the eyes, refusing to be intimidated by her apparent perfection.

"Hm, you're actually kind of pretty." She mused. "I mean, you could be, if you joined my group." I raised an eyebrow.

She smirked and turned toward another table.

"Bree!" she yelled. Instantly, like a dog responding to a whistle, another girl came rushing over. This girl was wearing a short jean skirt, a pink and black polk a dot blouse that was tucked in, and sandals. Her hair and eyes were deep brown, her hair curled to perfection.

Bree instantly swept her eyes over me, taking in my clothes, hair, face, and body the way Tiffany had.

"She could use some work." She said to Tiffany.

"'She' has a name." I said icily. "Max."

"As in, Maxine?" Tiffany asked with polite disinterest.

"No. Just Max."

"I think Maxine would work better." Bree said with a nod.

"I don't mean to be rude," I said, pretending to be polite. Then my voice rose to a yell. "But I dont give a flying fuck!"

All four people standing around me gasped.

Tiffany and Bree shot me dirty looks and stalked off, muttering under their breaths. Dylan shook his head and sighed at me.

"Max, you just committed social suicide."

Time skip

Sam reluctantly agreed to show me to the rest of my classes for the day, but insisted that after that I was on my own. And frankly I was perfectly fine with that. I didn't appreciate their zombie like obsession with popularity and status. And they already had negative points in my book for what they did to Fang.

Fang.

I thought his name wistfully, pressing the sleeves of his hoodie to my face. I missed him. Alot. Hearing all of these things about him today made me want to run back to the house and hold him close. I was craving him right now.

Unfortunately, I couldn't. Instead I had to brave the long annoying bus ride back to Tylers house just to come face to face with the homeowner himself, laying on the ratty couch, drunk off his ass.

"There's pizza in the kitchen." he slurred when I forced my way into the house through the broken front door.

FOOOOOOD.

I quickly ran into the kitchen to see the plain white box printed with ads sitting on the counter. I dumped my backpack onto the tile floor and snatched a slice from the box, devouring it in three bites. I scarfed down 2 more slices in this manner, then I wiped my fingers on my jeans and looked around for something to drink.

Beer was the only liquid in the house.

So I settled for drinking from kitchen sink. I snagged another slice, then chewed on it slowly on my way upstairs to do my homework.

I closed my door behind me and settled down on the bed to start working. It only took about half an hour, then I had time to think. I pulled my hood up, put in my earbuds, and laid back on the bed.

I hated it here. There, I said it. I have massive bruises on my body that hurt every time anything brushed them, I hated everyone at school, there wasn't anything to eat or drink in this house besides beer, and the entire house was dilapidated and falling apart.

I missed Fang so much it physically hurt, like a dull ache in my chest.

I didn't want to stay here.

I wanted to go home.

Time Skip Again

Several hours passed and I was asleep. Emphasis on the word was.

Slam went the door as Tyler stalked inside. Is he incapable of moving around quietly? I wondered as I yawned and tried to blink sleep out of my eyes.

"Move it bitch." he snarled. "I need this room."

For what?

At that moment, a tall blonde woman who was barely dressed appeared at his side.

Oh.

Guess that explains the stains.

Wait.

Ew.

I quickly shoved my stuff into the bathroom, then snatched up my phone, headphones, and Fangs hoodie before running out of the room. I moved pretty quickly, but not fast enough to miss the woman give a sultry laugh.

It's official.

I officially hate my new 'home'.

(A/N Hello peoples. Just to let you know, Tiffany and Bree are actually based on two girls from my school, at least in appearence. People who know me, can you guess who?

UNC-

Silence)


	37. Chapter 37

(A/N Ok, I'm really pissed right now. I was just scrolling through the max ride fanfic page when I came across a story with the description 'basically there in a mental facility its a oneshot if you like ill keep going'. I thought it was cool, so I decided to check it out. So Imagine my surprise when I began reading and I realized that this 'oneshot' was the first two chapters of THIS STORY COPIED WORD FOR WORD. I'm not kidding. So, I promptly sent them a PM and checked their profile. Apparently, it was their first story and surprise surprise, this story was on their favorites list.

Let me tell you something. Borrowing an idea is fine. Adopting a story with the authors permission is fine. But you cannot copy word for word and claim it is yours. They have a word for this. Its called PLAGIARISM. I'm pretty sure everyone knows what this means. If you don't, let me explain. It means to take someone elses work and pass it off as their own without the permission of the original creator.

I know this person is reading this. And I am very angry. (and no, there were not any authors notes to indicate who the story belonged to.) You can't copy peoples work. Write your own.

Ok, rant over. LIFE UPDATE TO EXPLAIN LACK OF UPDATES

Two Words my friends. High School. However, I am working on an extra long chapter to make up for it. Should be up soon.

UNC-

A Very Angry Silence)


	38. Chapter 38

Fangs PoV

"No! You can't make me leave! You can't!"

I bolted awake at the loud screaming coming from downstairs. In a few seconds, I had determined the voice was Valencias. This couldn't be good.

Moving fast, I grabbed a long sleeve shirt, yanked it over my head, and rushed downstairs. In the living room, Iggy was facing down Valencia while Nudge stood behind him.

"Max has been gone a week. There's no point in you staying here. And if the whitecoats bring a new arrival, we can't guarantee they won't tell them about you." Iggy said sternly, crossing his arms and staring her down with his blind eyes.

"But… but…." Valencia stammered like a child, tears welling up.

"And you know what happens then." Iggy continued without mercy.

"Don't say it." she begged.

"Jeb finds you." Iggy finished. Valencia paled at the sound of Jebs name. Then her brown eyes flashed with anger, and for a second I thought she was Max. Until her hand pulled back, ready to hit Iggy. Iggy of course, wouldn't have seen it coming.

But Nudge screamed in terror.

I flinched back so violently my back hit the wall with a loud thunk. Valencia's hand froze in midair. She looked slowly at it, then at Nudge, who was clinging to Iggy, and at me, leaning against the wall. The hand began to shake, and slowly lowered it as the tremors enveloped the rest of her body.

"I'm just like him." I heard her whisper. "I'm just like him."

That hit me hard. I had thought that once, years ago, when I was thinking about hurting the people who were hurting me at school.

_*Flashback*_

_Slam!_

_My head hit the locker as one of the jocks threw me against it for the millionth time. My head swam as blood dripped into my eyes, something that occurred far too often._

_A foot swung in, hitting me squarely in the gut. All of my breath left me, and I doubled over. I would have thrown up, if I had actually eaten in the past 2 days. The foot hit me again._

_Enough! I screamed in my mind, though my mouth refused to let the words escape. It was like my mind was a prisoner in an asylum, and my mouth was the warden, protecting the outside world from the prisoners lunacy._

_I had enough. I'm sick of being slammed around and kicked while I'm down. It's time to show them what I can do. I can take them, I knew I could. I could beat them into a pulp. I could hurt them badly enough that they would never dare to even look at me again. I could…. I could…. I…_

_I'm just like him._

_The thought jarred my mind and my body. I'm just like him. Just like my dad. Hurting people who do me wrong, taking out my rage through others._

_I can't be like him. I won't be like him._

_I won't._

_The jocks that surrounded me started laughing as I pulled myself back against the wall. I was only twelve, they were seniors. They had apparently lost their football game the night before and needed someone to hurt._

_Just like my father. I won't be like these guys either._

_I'll find some other way to let my emotions out._

_That was the first night I cut._

_*End FlashBack*_

I slid down the wall until I hit the floor, wrapping my arms around my knees. The room slowly came back into focus. Iggy was sitting on the couch now, cradling a sobbing Nudge. I guess I'm not the only one remembering. Valencia was no longer in the room.

"You ok Fang?" Iggy called over. I gulped before answering.

"Yeah." I answered. "Yeah I'm cool."

I wish Max was here.

Maxs PoV

"Out of my way!" Tiffany yelled at me, since I happened to be passing her locker at the moment.

"Yes, Your Majesty! I will clear the halls forthwith to make way for our Queen!" I proclaimed imperiously, making a big deal of curtsying sarcastically and backing away…. still in front of her locker.

"Oh you think you're sooo funny." she hissed, narrowing her eyes at me in a snake-like fashion.

"I think I'm adorable." I responded with a cheeky grin.

"Let's see if you're still laughing after this." she sneered. Then, before I could react, she lashed out with her hand and hit me square on the face, leaving lines of scraped skin from her nails. What did I do, you ask? Well, what do you think I did?

Obviously, I punched in her pretty little face.

She had been taunting me for the past week, but this was the first time it had gotten physical. Before I could hit her any more, Dylan appeared, forcing his way between us.

"Come on Tiffany," he said, "She's not worth it."

Not worth it.

I almost laughed sadly as Dylan dragged her away, glaring all the way. How many times had I heard those words?

Not worth it.

Worthless.

Useless.

I just shook my head and kept walking on towards class. I wouldn't let them get inside my head. My walls were too high, too strong. And there was no one to bring them down.

I gingerly rubbed my raw cheek, hearing my stomach grumble. Tyler hadn't been in the house for 4 or 5 days, so there wasn't any food either. I didn't have any money to use. So, as you could imagine, I was starving.

But that afternoon, when I arrived, he was there. And drunk. And pissed off all to hell.

"You bitch!" he roared, stumbling towards me.

Oh, great.

I dropped my backpack and dodged to the side when he swung at me. He whirled around and swung again, but I grabbed his arm and twisted it, making him cry out, then ducked under it and ran for the stairs. His hand tangled into my hair and yanked me flat, causing a searing pain to spread through my scalp. Once I was on the floor, I grabbed one of his ankles and pulled it right out from under him. He hit the floor hard and cracked his head. He lay still, his eyes fluttering shut. Slowly, cautiously, I sat up and peered closer. There was a bloody lump on the back of his head, but it wasn't fatal. He would be awake in a few hours, madder than ever.

I bolted upright in realization. This was my chance to get away. Before, I hadn't been sure about it, maybe I could manage Tyler, but after this? Even if I couldn't go back to Fang, at least I could get away from here.

I crawled fast over to my backpack, then snapped to my feet and bolted upstairs as fast as I could. I put on a different t-shirt and jeans, shoving the rest into my back pack after dumping the school crap on the floor. I raked my hair back into a tight, high ponytail. On went Fangs hoodie, hood over my blonde hair. Ipod and headphones in the pocket. The rest of my essentials went into the backpack.

I was downstairs, about to walk out the door, when I stopped and looked back at Tyler.

As fast as I could, I checked his pockets. He had about 200 dollars cash on him.

'Gee, I wonder what he needs this for.' I thought sarcastically as I shoved it in my pocket and left the hell-hole.

I strode quickly down the quiet street, heading for the nearby city bus stop. As I walked, I considered my options.

I didn't know exactly where I was, since I hadn't been paying attention when I was driven here, so A. I would be guessing where to get off, and B. I couldn't find my way back to Fang. Also, I would have to find somewhere to get some food.

As an afterthought: Why had Tyler freaked so bad? All I did was walk through the- ohhhhhhhh.

A couple of days ago, I had been going through the house when I came across a stash of needles and drugs. I had thrown them away in disgust. When he got back, he probably discovered they were missing and immediately guessed who did it.

Whoops.

(A/N Yeah, I know it's not really that long, but hopefully I'll get back into the groove of writing again. Really sorry I made you guys wait a month. :(

UNC-

Silence)


	39. Chapter 39

Maxs PoV

I reached the bus stop, seeing the two other people already waiting there. I could see the bus approaching down the road and had just enough time to dig out the exact change for the fare before it pulled up. I got on last, pushing the money at the bus driver and hurrying to an inconspicuous middle seat. I stared out the window, letting my forehead rest against the cool glass as my stomach ached with hunger. The next stop with a cafe near it will be the one I get off on.

As it turned out, that happened to be the third one after I got on. I spotted a cafe down the street as the push pulled to a stop and quickly got off and hurried into the building, just as rain started to spatter onto the sidewalk. I pushed my hood back as I walked up to the counter, my hair still up in it's ponytail. I ordered a coffee and two muffins, paid, and hurriedly sat down in a dark booth in the corner. My plan from here was to eat as fast as I could, find a map, and figure out an actual plan.

As I chugged down my still hot coffee, I looked up at the trashy T.V attached over the counter. Then I froze as a picture of me flashed up on the screen. It was a picture from when I was in the hospital, with my blonde hair tangling down my back, my skin pale, my eyes narrowed in a furious glare, still in my white hospital uniform. I gulped and switched my gaze to the subtitles.

_Maximum Ride reportedly run away from her foster home. She is 5'8, blonde, 16 years old, and has brown eyes. If anyone see's her or knows of her whereabouts, please call this number._

"Shit." I muttered under my breath. I yanked my hood back up, wrapped up my muffins in a napkin and shoved them into my bag, then left the cafe as quickly and stealthily as possible.

Great. Now I was a runaway. Meaning the police would probably be after me. And if they catch me, either Tyler would give me hell, or I would be sent back to it.

Damn, damn, double damn.

I trudged down several more streets before something promising caught my eye. It was a souvenir shop with, lo and behold, maps of the city in the window. I bought one, then ducked into a nearby alley under a fire escape to get out of the rain so I could look at the map. Just as I figured out where I was on it, a voice echoed down the alleyway.

"Hey, girlie, whatcha doin here?"

My head snapped up, my eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as four guys emerged from the shadows. As they got closer, I realized they were all fairly young, maybe a year older than me. They also all had some sort of weapon. Brass knuckles, a metal base ball bat, chains, something.

I put the map in my bag and shrunk deeper into my hood, stepping back as they got closer, keeping a safe distance between me and them.

"Don't you know whos territory you're on?" the same boy hissed when they reached me, scowling at me. At first, I was confused. Then I saw the matching tattoos on the sides of their necks, and it hit me like a train. They were in a gang. And they probably assumed I was too, because of my hood and angry look. This could go badly.

"Actually, no." I snarled. "And I have no wish to. I just need a minute, then I'll be on my way."

"Yeah, well," the boy responded, starting to close the distance between us, "how about you take your minute somewhere else, before there's trouble."

"I'm not asking for trouble." I shot back.

"Thats what you're gonna get if you don't leave."

"And what if I don't want to?"

The boy got right in my face and yanked my hood back before I could catch him. When he saw my face, he gave a low whistle.

"Look boys, little spitfires got a pretty face." he said maliciously. He peered closer at the bruise on my cheek from Tyler and spoke again. "And she's a scrapper too."

"Just walk away for awhile." I said. "And when you come back, I'll be gone. No harm done."

"You may have a pretty face sweetheart," he chuckled, "But you don't have me wrapped around your finger just yet."

"Fine." I snapped. "Can you at least get out of my 'pretty face' so that I can leave?"

"Hmmmmm I don't know." the guy said, pressing even closer. "The boss might want to see you." The other three boys snickered as my nose crinkled in disgust.

"A minute ago you wanted me gone more than anything." I pointed out. "Whats changed?"

"I just considered the possibilities is all." he said with a smirk.

"Yeah? Well sorry boys, but I'm not interested in any of those 'possibilities.'" Since he wasn't going to move, I shoved past him roughly and headed for the street, reaching back to pull my hood up.

I wasn't surprised when a calloused hand closed on my wrist, and I was pulled back into a rock hard chest.

"I didn't say I was done with you." he snarled into my ear, his lip ring brushing the side of my face.

"But I did." I snapped, quickly twisting around and nailing him in between the legs with the heel of my boot. He froze up, pain on his face, as I yanked away and headed for the street again. Then three more pairs of hands were on me, pulling me back farther into the alley.

Then everyone froze as we heard police sirens blaring through the street.

The boys all muttered curses, pulling their hands off of me as if I had burned them and taking off as fast as they could down the alleyway, disappearing into the bowels of the city.

I swore and grabbed my bag, looking around frantically for an exit. Then I made my choice and scrambled up the fire escape ladder and curled up on the platform, shrinking into Fangs hoodie. Several anxious seconds later, the cop cars whizzed by without stopping. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I waited several more minutes, just in case, then climbed back down and left the alley as fast as I could without drawing attention. I pulled out my map and studied it as I walked, eventually deciding on a park near by.

It took me about ten minutes to get there. Luckily enough, it had several large, easily climbable trees surrounding the actual playground area. I scaled up as high as I could on the tallest one, sighing as I remembered the one back at the house. I set my bag on a branch and set my back against the trunk, closing my eyes. Right before I dropped off, another memory assaulted me. On visiting day, up in the tree with Fang. He caught me when I almost fell, and I remember hoping he wouldn't notice me blush.

I fell asleep with a tear running down my cheek.

(A/N YAAAAY I didn't make you wait another month! Score! Reviews please guys, they help alot!

UNC-

Silence)


	40. Chapter 40

Fangs PoV

Iggy finally forced Valencia out of the house the next morning after breakfast. She was crying and begging and threatening, but eventually he just shoved her out the door and locked it behind her. The moment that lock snapped shut, I knew that any connection with Max had just been severed.

Iggy was right. Valencia was here for Max.

Max was gone. And she wasn't coming back.

"Fang? Hello? You in there?" Nudge was in front of me, snapping her fingers quietly in my face.

I shook my head to clear the cobwebs and blinked rapidly to let Nudge know I was still there. She smiled at me, but I didn't even try to smile back.

She just sighed and turned to return to Iggy's side, where she could be found 80% of the time. She tugged on his sleeve and whispered something in his ear. Anxiety twisted in my gut as Iggys blind eyes lifted to me. Even if the eyes are blind, stares still make your skin crawl.

Iggy nodded to Nudge, then walked over to stand in front of me.

"Hey," he said, "you ok?"

"Fine." I muttered, barely spitting out the answer before I ran away.

I ran into my room and slammed the door behind me, bracing my back against it. I felt like I was being pulled under a wave, drowning.

I scrubbed my hands over my face and through my hair, feeling my muscles tense up. I felt like I was about to blow. I was freaking out. I had to make it stop.

The first thing that popped into my head was Max, but then I remembered that she wasn't here. Another wave crashed over me.

The second thing that occured to me was the knife. I still had it in my closet, Max hadn't taken it from me.

No. No I can't.

Another wave, and I slid down the wall, feeling like I couldn't breathe.

I can't. I won't.

I'm sinking. Farther and farther. I need to breathe. I need to breathe.

I struggled to my feet and stumbled to the closet, yanking it open and dragging my hand along the top shelf until it met the handle of my knife. I pulled it down and wiped the dust off the blade. Then I just stood and stared at it.

Another wave, and I felt myself plummet again. Pain was thudding against the inside of my chest, like I really was drowning. I was frantic. Anything, anything to stop the screaming. My breaths were coming faster, gasping, while my eyesight blurred. I wanted to scream, to smash something. I wanted to feel that familiar stinging pain that would make it all go away.

"I'm sorry, Max." I whispered, then I dragged the blade across my skin.

I hissed in a breath, tensing up as the knife sliced me open. Then I exhaled, long and deep, as everything I was holding inside leaked out of the cut in my flesh.

I could breathe again. The screaming had stopped. And I wasn't drowning anymore. Now I was at the surface, breathing in, as I cut myself open a second time. I was calm again.

But I knew, watching the blood bead up, that now that I had started again, I would never be able to stop.

Time Skip

That night, the nightmares came back.

When I had first came here, I had alot of them, every night. Until I started talking to Max. Now they were back, either tormenting me all night long or preventing me from sleeping at all. They were about my dad, the fire, my mom, the kids at school. And now they were about Max too. That she would get hurt somehow, that someway my father would find her.

They were about cutting, that one day I would just go too far. Then I really wouldn't see Max again.

Maxs PoV

I woke up the next morning tired, achey, and damp from the rain that had fallen the day before. I yawned and rubbed my eyes with my fists. Out of habit, I rummaged through my bag to find the little orange bottle. But when I found it, it was empty.

I bit my lip as I looked at the empty bottle. I couldn't exactly get it refilled, being a fugitive and all. I guess I would just have to… go without them.

I'll be honest. Not taking them scared me. We all remember how hostile I was to Fang on his first day when I hadn't taken them. But I also remember hating them for smothering emotions I should have been confronting instead. Then again, being on the run isn't the best time for deep personal reflections.

I resolved to deal with that later and shoved the bottle back into my bag. Without withdrawing my hand, I grabbed one of my slightly stale muffins and pulled it out. I chewed on it slowly while staring at my map that I had spread across my knees. Ok so… where can I go? I have no idea what to do.

"Excuse me ma'am?"

My head snapped downwards. Standing beneath my tree was a woman. She had brown hair pulled back tightly to the back of her neck with brown skin, and wearing a black jacket with the police department patch on the arm.

A cop. One that looked like an older version of Nudge. I simultaneously sighed and swore in my mind.

"Climbing the trees in this park is forbidden. Please come down at once."

What do they have trees for if not for climbing? I thought to myself as I shoved my stuff in my bag, pulled my hood up, and descended to the ground. Once I was in front of her, I kept my head down and my eyes on my feet, my knuckles turning white from my grip on my bag.

"What are you doing out here with that bag anyway?" the cop asked.

"Stopped for a second on my way to school." I said, thinking fast.

"It's Saturday." the cop responded, sounding suspicious. Shit…

"I have detention." Another lie. I'm really starting to hate lying.

"Look up at me." she commanded. I couldn't really refuse without appearing suspicious now could I?

So, slowly, I tilted my face slightly so that I looked her in the eyes, praying that she hadn't seen the news and that she wouldn't recognize me.

Recognition flared in her Nudge like eyes.

"Hey, you're that runaway from the news!" she exclaimed, her hand reaching for me.

Shit.

(A/N And another chapter for your viewing pleasure. Please, enjoy.

UNC-

Silence)


End file.
